


Lena's Insurrection

by jollywriter



Category: Supergirl (TV 2015)
Genre: Angst with a Happy Ending, Blood and Injury, F/F, Hand to Hand Combat, Slow Burn, Violence, Work In Progress, superhero in training
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2017-02-28
Updated: 2017-07-13
Packaged: 2018-09-27 11:37:28
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 14
Words: 50,160
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/10018748
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/jollywriter/pseuds/jollywriter
Summary: Lena Luthor is relatively new to National City. She has a beautiful and utterly capable assistant, Kara Danvers. Lena also has an impending corporate usurper trying to take LuxCorp away from her. To stop him, she's going to need new alliances, and new ideas.





	1. Lena's Audible

**Author's Note:**

> This started mostly because Lena and Kara deserve better, and I had an idea.  
> This is a WiP, and beta'd by myself. all mistakes are mine. I don't own anything mentioned in this story
> 
> follow me@thejollywriter on Tumblr!

There are four companies on the S&P 500 that conduct business annually with over a trillion dollars in profit. Two electronics manufactures, an oil company, and LuxCorp. And, Lena Luthor is more than capable of handling that business. It’s her _job,_ she’s good at it, and she’s grown the company, _despite_ her brother’s calamities, to an incredible force for innovation and cultural progress.

Despite that, she had her head down on her desk, a report under her forehead, and she groaned openly as if she’d woken up hungover with the empty remnants of two fifths of vodka strewn about.

In the file was an injunction from George Kirkland, in the latest attempt to muscle her out of her own company. Adopted or not, her name was Luthor and she wasn’t giving it up.

“Do I have to go?” Lena moaned, and looked up at Kara Danvers, personal assistant extraordinaire. “I don’t wanna.”

“You do,” Kara nodded, and seemed sympathetic. She had big blue eyes, stunning blonde hair tied into an efficient updo, and big glasses.

“But he’s a jerk, and I’m tired.”

“But someone has to smack him down.” Kara said.

“You’re right,” Lena hedged. And rose.

She smoothed her black blouse, brushed her arms off, and took the file Kara brought her.

“Hold on,” Kara stepped into Lena’s path, and reached out with her right hand. Lena froze, briefly confused by what Kara was doing, and then—

Kara, her brows furrowed in frustration, rested her hand gently against Lena’s jaw, and brushed her thumb under Lena’s lower lip to erase a smudge of lipstick.

Kara’s fingers were dry and strong, and for a brief moment, her face was nothing more than a mask of concentration. And then she bit her lower lip in distraction. Lena’s eyebrows rose steadily as she stared at her beautiful assistant, and her mind spiraled off into—

“Okay,” Kara stood back, serious and proud. “Got it.”

“Thank you,” Lena returned to herself. “Yes. Um. Thank you Ms. Danvers.”

“You’re welcome, Ms. Luthor.” Kara nodded. Lena liked the way Kara said Ms. Luthor. She led the way, Kara close behind.

The boardroom on the executive level was a broad expanse of intricately decorated space that prized efficiency and the abolition of distraction above decorative beauty. The table was dark, solid wood, surrounded by stout office chairs (with good lumbar support.)

There was an expensive digital projection conference call system that showed a holographic image of the person on the other end of the line in real time. It was a system developed in-house, actually.

No better sales technique than using the gear you promote. It’s surprising how few companies do that.

Inside the boardroom, the table was utterly surrounded except for Lena’s seat, at the head. Approximately a third were shareholders. The rest were lawyers.

Lena sighed. And took her seat at the head of the table.

“Ms. Luthor,” George said. “I hope we didn’t distract you from anything.” His voice ground in her ears on a register that put her immediately on edge. She wondered if it was deliberate, if he’d had training to sound that irritating and unpleasant.

“You most certainly did,” Lena said with an honest smile. “I was trying to run my company.”

“Hmm,” he said. “You seem to forget your company belongs, and answers, to its shareholders.”

“Forty-two percent of my company,” Lena said.

His smirk vanished as he worked to suppress his resentment. There’d been a duel, a quiet one, between her buyers and his, to acquire the loose nine percent of LuxCorp after her brother shat the company almost into ruin trying to kill Clark Kent. He’d been voted out of his own company because of those actions, and the heir to the CEO position became dubious and uncertain. The deciding factor was the loose nine percent of public stock.

She’d emerged victorious, and with fifty-eight percent of the company in hand, she moved to National City to start anew.

It was a loss that George took personally.

“Well,” he said, his hands pushing too hard on the table. Even from her end, Lena could see the whites of his knuckles. “This shouldn’t take much of your precious time. Have you read the—“

“I read the file, George. And I’m aware of this injunction. Except, there’s an addendum to the contracts you all signed, and your lawyers are already aware of. I’m certain of that.”

There was a brief bit of murmur, and he said, “Nine percent. You owe me nine percent of the company. And that’s it.”

“I don’t owe you anything, George, except what I already paid this quarter. Because so long as the interest on the stocks doesn’t go down comparable market value, you have no grounds to force an injunction to oust me from the board.”

He ground his teeth together. “We are prepared to argue that LuxCorp operates separately and largely independent from the rest of the stock market on this level due to it’s—“

“No,” She said. And leaned back. “Wall Street still trade my company openly, and they use it as a barometer for how products in other companies are going to behave. Clearly, the performance of LuxCorp is utterly integrated into the performance of the overall stock market. Just like every other startup, and just like corporate giants like Samsung, and Apple.”

He ground his teeth together and Lena wondered if there’d be any molars left or just dust.

She didn’t particularly care. She was tired of entitled men trying to rip her company out of her hands.

“Are we done?” She asked. She had her hands lightly crossed in front of her.

None of the other lawyers in the room spoke up. The board of trustees looked uncomfortable. They fidgeted in their chairs, glanced at each other and down at George.

“For now,” he said slowly and with utterly deliberate annunciation.

She pushed back her chair and rose smoothly to her feet. “Then unless there’s no other pressing business, I’ll see you all next quarter for our review.” She turned, and then said, “Thank you, for your time.” And she rapped on the table once with her knuckle.

With that, she strode out, Kara on her heels. Back in her office a moment later, Kara said, “You did amazing!”

Lena slowly took her position behind her desk, and sighed, “Then why do I feel like I just spat in the face of an angry lion?”

Kara hesitated, and then deflated visibly. Lena’s heart lurched; she didn’t intend to hurt Kara in that statement, “Probably,” Kara hedged. “Because you did.”

“You don’t seem bothered,” Lena said.

“He had it coming,” Kara said. “And he thinks he owns you. So, my sympathies for him are quite low.”

Lena smiled. “I appreciate your vote of confidence.”

Kara blushed, and then composed herself, “Is there anything else you need, Ms. Luthor?”

“That’ll be all for now, Ms. Danvers.”

Kara walked away.

The heavy, opaque glass door settled and sealed the office shut, and Lena looked around for something she couldn’t quite place. The office was tidy; the gunmetal gray carpets were clean, the white couch was spotless, the white walls as well, and her onyx desk were all perfectly in order.

So why did she feel ill-at-ease?

She thrummed her fingers on her desk, and then sat down in her overstuffed leather chair. Why _did_ she feel so uncomfortable?

She worked through the emotion. There was a definition to the feeling, and therefore, a definition to her unease. A source and an explanation.

She’d just confronted a powerful and influential man who wants nothing more than to obliterate LuxCorp and fold it into his own company. He doesn’t have the means to outright seize control of her company. So he’s gotta wheel, deal, and manipulate.

She thrummed her fingers over her chair arm.

Worse than his entitlement to her company, she just embarrassed him in front of a room full of people who he promised to help. He’s sold them a narrative of the company thriving under his leadership.

And she just told him she’d outflanked him.

She realized her mistake and pinched the bridge of her nose as it dawned on her. She’d _outflanked_ him and she _told_ him she’d outflanked him.

No he’s gonna invest all his time into not only organizing another coup, but making sure she can’t call a legal audible and stomp him with a clause buried in the contracts.

“Fuck,” She whispered.

She leaned back in her chair and worked through the rest of that thought. She’d messed up, clearly, and overplayed a subtle advantage that could’ve been milked for longer. If nothing else, now she’s given him something to try and manipulate so as to make it seem like she’s not paying out properly in comparison to other companies.

This was a slow game of attrition she’d gotten herself into. George started it, and she had more resources, but every piece of corporate luck would break in his favor.

She was the only trillionaire CEO who was also a female. She was trying to rehabilitate a company name that’d been irredeemably sullied by repeated, public attempts to kill a loved public savoir.

Hey. There’s something to that.

She leaned forward. Lex, in his stead as the CEO of LuxCorp had tried, often and openly, to annihilate the Man of Steel. What if Lena, also publically and honestly, but maybe more subtly, tried to help Supergirl. Supergirl was in National City, and she was a beloved figure.

Lena wouldn’t do it openly. It’d be a publicity stunt, and even if it wasn’t seen through immediately, she didn’t want to manipulate Supergirl that way. She hadn’t met her, but if Supergirl was every bit the heroic figure that her cousin was, she wouldn't go for the publicity stunt anyway.

But genuine help: Supergirl was just one person. And the DoD was probably assisting her, but still. What if LuxCorp could offer supplies and materiel and assistance to Supergirl?

That’d be a coup in and of itself. What could George do to compete against that? LuxCorp supporting Supergirl? What could he possibly do?

Lena liked the idea.

But she didn’t want to let George flounder and find an idea and get his feet out from under him. From now on, this was a two front war. One to support Supergirl. And the other, to annihilate George, and make any competitor think twice about trying to usurp Lena Luthor.

“Kara, would you please come in here? And bring your notebook.”

Kara pushed through the door a moment later, alert and pad open, and pen in hand. “Yes, Ms. Luthor?”

“Would you please ask Mayor Hawking to stop in? No! Ask her if I can buy her a quiet lunch somewhere.”

“Certainly. What should I say the meeting is about?”

Lena considered, and then said, “Single-unit personal defense of National City.”

Kara looked up slowly, “Do you mean--?”

“Yeah,” Lena nodded. “I want to talk to her about Supergirl.”

“Is that wise?” Kara asked, and began to fidget, “I mean, I don’t mean to say it’s a bad idea. But. Why?”

“It’s a fair question,” Lena nodded, wondering why Kara fidgeted so, but she pushed it to the back of her mind and moved on, “Because the Mayor has met Supergirl a number of times. And I’d like to offer Supergirl LuxCorp’s support. I figure the best way to facilitate an introduction between me and Supergirl would be through an intermediary that Supergirl could trust not to set her up in some kind of trap.” Lena leaned back in her chair. “Does that make sense?”

“It does,” Kara said, brows knitted in concentration. “Is it? A trap, I mean.”

“No,” Lena said without hesitation. “I genuinely mean to help Supergirl, if I can.”

Kara wrote it down. “Understood. How soon would you like the meeting?”

“Soon as possible. Today, if she can manage it.”

Kara nodded, “As you wish, Ms. Luthor.”

“Thank you.”

Kara walked away. With her gone, Lena made a second appointment by herself.

She used a cell phone she’d withdrawn from the bottom of her desk, where it had been taped up to the bottom of the drawer above so it wouldn’t be seen in a search, and dialed a number from memory. The phone rang twice, three times, then click.

“What?” the voice was gravelly with cigarette damage, tired, and androgynous.

“Do you recognize me?” Lena asked.

A pause on the other end of the line. “I do.” They said.

“I need some advice, if you don’t mind.”

“Of course I fucking mind,” they snapped. “What have you done?”

“Nothing, yet. It’s what I’m _planning_.”

“Ah. Well that’s different. Meet me at Sully’s, at eight. By yourself, of course.”

“Certainly.” Lena said. She barely finished the word before they hung up. “Well, good bye and so long to you too,” Lena muttered, deleted the call, powered off the phone, and taped it back in place.

Kara returned, but she knocked first. “Enter,” Lena said.

“Ms. Luthor, the mayor would like to meet you at Donovan’s, at One.”

“Certainly. Would you mind coming along to take notes?”

“Um,” Kara stood a little straighter, “I mean. I can. Of course!”

“Good,” Lena stood up. “There’s not many I can trust with this at the moment. I want to keep it between as few of us as possible.”

“Absolutely. I understand that.” Kara said, “When would you like to leave?”

Lena looked at her watch, “About an hour. What do we have to work on in the meantime?”

Kara turned back a few pages in her notepad for an answer.


	2. Lena's Interrogatory

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Lena's Quest to meet and help Supergirl gets complicated

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> There's a lot of personal conflict here but also a sweet (ish) moment later. I beta'd this by myself so all mistakes are mine!
> 
> follow me @thejollywriter on Tumblr!

The Mayor, Gwendoline Hawking, was a tall woman with subtle grace, a long jaw, bright, dark brown eyes, dark hair, and a severe stare when she wasn’t speaking. She’d arranged for a table at Donovan’s on 5th Avenue, in a quiet corner where they weren’t likely to be eavesdropped upon.

“I must confess,” Mayor Hawking said, “I don’t think your quip about the single unit city defender was particularly clever. Or subtle.”

“I apologize,” Lena said. “I figured discretion would be important in talking about such things.”

“I believe it is,” Mayor Hawking looked at Lena pointedly, “Supergirl is a treasure to this city, and her anonymity is paramount.”

Lena stopped eating, her fork twined around several strands of pasta in her seafood linguini, “I hear more in that statement than you’re saying.”

Mayor Hawking smirked, “You’re not wrong. I’m saying, Ms. Luthor—“

“Please, call me Lena.” Maybe if this was less about her being a corporate monarch meeting with the Mayor, it might go more smoothly.

Mayor Hawking paused, “Very well. Lena.” She sounded no more relaxed than before. Lena deflated internally.

“I’m saying,” Mayor Hawking continued, “A great deal of the defense of this city relies solely on respecting and placating an alien capable of annihilating us.”

Kara looked up, concerned. “You think she’s a threat?” Lena looked over at Kara. Her hair was up in a more intense knot than before and she’d been on edge for the entire journey here.

“I don’t know if she is or not,” Mayor Hawking said. She met Kara’s eyes, and then glanced back and forth between Kara and Lena, “But I know there are a great number of genuine threats that we could not have handled on our own. We lack the weapons, tools, training, and manpower to devote such resources to this task. And I fear Supergirl’s continued support rests less on her compassion to help, and more on her anonymity to _not_ be Supergirl sometimes.”

Lena put the fork down, dabbed at her lips and finished chewing, “I’m not sure I understand that.”

“Can you imagine the pressure of being Supergirl?”

“I haven’t tried,” Which was true. Now that she’d thought about it however, Mayor Hawking’s point was easy to see. Some of that enlightenment must’ve showed on Lena’s face.

“I can only barely imagine the strain of being that person.” At this, the Mayor relaxed. “I get stressed at the meetings I have to handle between embattled tenants of the city that have been at each-other’s throats since time out of mind. And yet, when I think about having to catch falling airliners or lift entire prisons into space? My job seems much, much easier. All I want to do is ensure National City respects Supergirl enough so that she doesn’t have to feel on guard, every second of every day.” Mayor Hawking considered for a long moment, and then sighed. Lena recognized that she’d made the decision, and knew before she spoke, what the Mayor was going to say. “No, Ms. Luthor, I’m not sure I want to introduce you to Supergirl.”

“Why?” Lena asked, as calm as she could manage.

“Because I don’t trust your motives.” Mayor Hawking said, and took another bite of her Caesar salad.

“I am not my brother,” Lena said. “I moved here, I moved my _company_ here, so I could start over. Make amends for what he’d done, and try to make things right.”

“Your brother made it a company mission to kill Superman. There’s no amends to be made for that.” Mayor Hawking said. “Thank you for lunch. I’m sure you won’t mind the tab.” She wiped at her lips, dropped the napkin next to the salad, and rose. The two cops who were her guards rose from where they sat, a few empty booths away, and flanked her on her way out.

Lena slumped in her chair.

“I’m not sure I’m more insulted by her implying I can’t be trusted, or that she stuck me with the check.”

“Both,” Kara said. “I think both might be viable.” It was meant humorously, but Kara looked sad.

“We’ll figure it out. She’s not the only one who knows Supergirl.” Lena said. “Though, I may have to be more subtle now.”

“Why?”

“I don’t gain credulity amongst the rank and file who _do_ know and interact with Supergirl if I start plying every one of them with expensive meals in exchange for an introduction. Because she,” Lena gestured to the departing Mayor, “Will tell some people. Not many, I don’t think, but it won’t stay between us that I tried to meet Supergirl through her. And that’ll put a lot of people on edge.”

“So what do you want to do?”

“Honestly?” Lena looked over at Kara, “Finish my lunch. The Mayor may have thrown away a meal, but this linguini is tops.”

She continued eating, only mildly satisfied by the incredulous look on Kara’s face.

Hey, she’s a trillionaire. Lena figured she was allowed a certain amount of eccentricity with people she trusts.

“Anything else interesting on the books for today?” Lena asked, as she mopped up the remaining bits of pasta and sauce from her bowl with a piece of toasted garlic bread.

“Not really,” Kara said. “Nothing as interesting as trying to meet Supergirl.”

Lena nodded, and looked up while she gave her food a moment to settle. There was a small TV in the corner of the restaurant, in the waiting area beyond the host’s station by the front doors. On it, was a new report from CatCo.

“Hey,” Lena said. “Cat Grant seems to have a few interactions with Supergirl, hasn’t she?”

“Yeah,” Kara said. “Supergirl has been on Cat’s show, once or twice.”

“That’s right!” Lena snapped her fingers. “Okay. Can you call Cat? See if she’s up to seeing me this afternoon. I’ll bring her a nice bottle of something for her time.”

“Certainly.” Kara pulled her cell phone from her pocket, and stood to make the calls without talking in Lena’s ear.

Lena wondered if Cat would harbor any animosity at Lena stealing Kara as an assistant.

 

#

 

“Did you come back to rub it in my face? Or just to gloat?” Cat asked.

“I brought you good liquor!” Lena gestured to the twenty-two year old bottle of Irish whiskey, “And already you hate me.”

“Lena, you’re wily. And nothing’s ever free with you.”

Lena tried to rebuke that but she’d gotten the bottle out of her private stash specifically so she could butter up Cat Grant. At last, she shrugged, “Okay. I brought the bottle to try and get into your good graces.”

“You have failed, spectacularly.” Cat smiled at her.

“So I’ve noticed.”

“What do you want?” Cat asked.

Lena took a small sip from the cup of coffee in hand, “I came to ask for your help, actually.” Kara, meanwhile, looked studiously at her iPad and seemed to work incredibly hard to be invisible.

Cat sat perched behind her desk with stiff posture. Lena couldn’t tell if the posture came from the starch in Cat’s blazer, or the tension in her spine at Lena’s being in Cat’s office.

“My help?” Cat asked, one eyebrow up. “Why?”

“Because this is a delicate matter and I need subtly.”

“I’m not publishing fluff pieces on LuxCorp just because you bat your eyes at me and grin.” Cat relaxed a little, “And bring me incredibly expensive bottles of good whiskey.”

Cat glanced briefly at Kara, and when Lena looked, shared the eye-contact. A lot went unspoken between Cat and Kara.

“I wouldn’t dream of you giving preferential treatment to my company,” Lena said, cold and solid. “If you do say kind things about me and mine, I want it to be because we earned that praise, not because we bought your attention.”

Cat raised both eyebrows and bobbed her head slowly, “I did not expect that.”

“You expected more cajoling?”

“I did, actually. Your brother was a ‘throw money at the problem until it’s solved’ kind of person. That’s the Luthor approach I remember.”

“I’d rather earn the respect and cash in on principle, personally.”

“So this isn’t a bribe?” Cat rapped a finger against the amber colored bottle.

“No,” Lena shook her head, and with total honest conviction said, “That’s a gift, given without lent, lien, or hidden purpose.”

“If you deliver on that, you’ll be a first among corporate executives.”

Lena said nothing.

“Now! What did you want my help with?” Cat asked.

Lena hesitated, “I’d like to meet Supergirl.”

Cat, in the process of leaning forward, did not betray any surprise. And, to her credit, said, “No,” Without much animosity.

“Why?” Lena asked, proud of herself for not immediately becoming defensive or whiny at the rebuke.

“Because I like Supergirl, and I don’t trust you. Impressive speech aside.”

“I haven’t told you why I wanted to meet her,” Lena said, slowly and with great care to not seem frustrated.

“So?” Cat met her eyes, “If you wanted to meet my COO, or something, that’s one thing. If you wanted to talk to me about buying me out, that’s on the level of a personal conversation. Asking me to introduce you to probably the single kindest person I’ve ever met is not on the level of personal favors.”

“You’ve written some scathing editorials about vigilante justice, including a four-page rant about how lawless National City has become in spite of these vigilantes.”

Cat smiled, “I had an epiphany.”

Lena carefully set down the cup and saucer of coffee, and leaned back in her chair. Kara took notes diligently but looked like she’d rather be anywhere but in that room. Lena regretted bringing her along.

“For what it’s worth, I don’t want to buy your company, by the way.” Lena stood. Cat was dug in and Lena didn’t have the means to roust her from her trench. Nor did she want to.

“Good,” Cat rose as well and offered her hand. “It’s not for sale.”

Lena shook with Cat, and turned for the door to leave Cat’s office.

“Are you enjoying yourself at LuxCorp, Kara?” Cat asked, stalling both of them.

“I am, Ms. Grant,” Kara clutched her tablet to her chest and tried not to look stricken. Or panicked, or on the spot.

“There’s always a place for you here, if you wish.”

Kara blushed intensely, “Thank you, Ms. Grant. I appreciate that.”

Lena didn’t blame Cat for the attempt. Kara was a brilliant assistant who solved problems Lena didn’t even think about. She didn’t fault Cat trying to entice Kara to return.

They walked out. By themselves in the elevator on the way down, Kara said, “I’m sorry that didn’t go well.”

“Not your fault,” Lena looked over at Kara. “I didn’t expect it to but I’m genuinely surprised by the kind of protection Supergirl has generated.”

“You are?”

“I am,” Lena nodded. “Loyalty is rare. And this is impressive.”

There was a brief silence, and then Kara asked, “So what are you going to do now?” Kara asked.

“I’m not sure. Maybe stage a disaster so Supergirl could rescue me?” Lena smirked, and then sighed. “Not really.”

And she didn’t want the first meeting with the hero to be the result of manipulation. “I’ll figure something out. If nothing else, I might just throw a party, honoring Supergirl.” Lena shook her head. “I dunno. I’ll figure something out.”

“Yeah I’m not sure Supergirl would appreciate a random party.” Kara’s skepticism inspired Lena to throw the party anyway.

“Every hero loves a party,” Lena said. “I think.”

They walked outside, and got into the waiting limo. Kara worked on a tablet while they rode across town back to LuxCorp.

“You wrote about her, when you worked for Cat?” Lena asked.

“Once,” Kara looked up briefly, “Mostly I just edited the stuff Ms. Grant wrote so it would be good and polished in the paper.”

“What’s she like?” Lena asked.

Kara wrinkled her brows and pursed her lips, “She’s incredibly nice. Like. It was overwhelming, how nice she was.”

“In what way?”

“Have you ever been around someone really bubbly and happy and excited about everything and just genuinely a good person?”

“Yeah, you,” Lena said, and nudged Kara playfully.

“Not like me,” Kara blushed and shook her head. Lena grinned a little wider at how immediately flustered Kara became. She should feel bad; ethically this was dodgy at best, but Lena liked how Kara blushed. She was cute and beautiful and incredibly endearing.

“I can’t imagine anyone nicer than you, Kara.”

“I think my sister is pretty nice,” Kara said.

“I didn’t know you had a sister,” Lena angled her head.

“Yeah,” Kara smiled, “She’s a cop.”

“Oh wow! I’ll try and behave then.”

Kara didn’t respond, only sat back in her seat and stared idly at the tablet. She darkened the screen, and looked at the window. She had a distracted little smile on her face. Lena noticed, gradually, that she stared at Kara.

When she realized it, she put the brakes on, and made a deliberate effort to put the thoughts aside.

Ethically dubious at best, flirting and potentially entering into any kind of relationship with her assistant was a bad idea. Because the terms of consent were always weighed by the consideration of; she works for Lena. Any deal, any agreement, tipped equal power away from her assistant and towards Lena.

She liked power imbalances in a boardroom, where she could win the fights against usurpers and misogynistic pricks trying to cheat her out of her company.

But in a relationship? Where intimacy is concerned? There is nothing if there is no equality. And that meant being able to say no, to anything, without repercussions.

That just left the problem of coping the thoughts of Kara floating around Lena’s mind.

She rolled her eyes, looked out the window on her side of the car, and wondered if rubbing one (or three) out was the best option. Just do it, and move on.

“Why haven’t you asked me to introduce you to Supergirl?” Kara blurted.

“You work for me,” Lena said without hesitation. “I won’t put you in a position where you’d have to choose trying to please me over loyalty. And I want to make an honest, good impression on Supergirl. Pressuring someone she met for an interview doesn’t seem like the way to do that.”

“No,” Kara nodded slowly, “Probably not.”

The car rumbled down a part of the road with poorly filled potholes, and the car lurched badly. Lena fell sideways, against Kara, who caught her. She wound up partially sprawled in Kara’s lap, and briefly dazed, looking up at her.

“Are you alright?” Kara asked. She helped Lena upright.

 _I need to move to a cabin in Alaska and become a hermit, immediately._ “Just fine,” Lena said. “You?”

“Never better.” Kara offered a little lopsided smile.

 _Oh no that’s not fair_ , Lena thought. That was the first reaction. The second reaction was, _I am so screwed._

Maybe she could distract herself with work until she had to go visit the bowels of the city for an unpleasant business meeting.

“You can go home on time tonight,” Lena said, before they got back to the office. “Not a lot of work left, and I won’t need your help into the wee hours, like usual.”

“Are you sure? I don’t mind staying.”

“One of us should have a life beyond the office, Kara, and it’s certainly not me.” Lena smiled.

“Are you sure?” Kara asked, a second time.

“Yes. I will survive briefly without your studious attentions. Probably.” Lena shrugged.

“Well. If you insist,” Kara looked at her sideways.

“I do.”

“Very well, Ms. Luthor.” Kara said with quiet reverence.

Lena kicked herself mentally, and told her swooning heart to stop it.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> it's cheesy and sappy and there'll be soooooo much more of that coming in future chapters.


	3. Kara's Confessional

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Kara Danvers tries to make sense of Lena Luthor's desire to meet Supergirl by getting good take-out food with her sister Alex, and talking it out. Alex, meanwhile, is hell-bent on being the snarkiest sister alive.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I don't have an exact plan for alternating between Lena's and Kara's perspectives. But both see sides of this story that are unique and interesting, so I'll keep writing them both.
> 
> Follow me @thejollywriter on Tumblr!

Kara Danvers was an absolutely pathetic liar. She wasn’t born for it. Lies didn’t spill naturally from her lips, and keeping secrets relied more heavily on her desire to protect the people she cared about, than an act of explicit deception.

Thus, spending all day with Lena Luthor while she tried to organize a meeting with Supergirl was profoundly uncomfortable. And all those looks Cat kept giving Kara in her office while they talked about Kara’s more public job? Kara was certain Lena’d figure it out on the spot.

Lena didn’t appear to, however. Maybe she would later. Lena was smart in a way Kara hadn’t seen often before. Calculating, too. Brilliant and strategic and inventive, and Kara was genuinely uncertain how she was going to maintain the charade.

Especially if she actually met Lena as Supergirl.

Once Ms. Luthor released her for the day, Kara called Alex.

“Please tell me you’re coming to save me from this fresh hell,” Alex said.

“What’s going on?”

“Winn is making me sit through a tech briefing.”

“But you like tech,” Kara said.

“I like solving problems, not listening to lectures on the how his having taken a Kryptonian death ray and modified it to do a laser light show for a dubstep concert isn’t an egregious breach of protocol.” Alex said, and in the background, Kara could hear Winn whining at Alex about how not-boring he was. And also, it’s technically House music, not dubstep.

“Well, I guess I’m your savior tonight. Because I gotta talk about super stuff. So. Your place or mine? Ice cream is included.”

“Yours,” Alex said, “It’s closer. I’ll see you soon.”

The thought of ice cream made Kara’s stomach rumble profoundly. “Hey can you bring food? I’ll pay you back.”

“Honey, they don’t pay me enough to afford to feed you.”

“Please,” Kara whined in her most pathetic tone of voice. It was dreadful, but it usually worked.

“Look, I’m not picking up food because you cajoled me into feeding you, but because I was already hungry and I’m being polite.” Alex said because Kara had totally rolled her but Alex needed to keep up appearances.

“Uh-huh, sure. Get extra duck sauce please?” Kara still didn’t know how ducks made sauce but Alex hadn’t stopped laughing long enough to explain it.

“Fine,” Alex drew the word out. “I expect a gallon of cookies and cream, then.”

“Fair deal,” Kara said. “See you soon!”

“Fly safe,” Alex said, and hung up.

Kara went to the supermarket to buy extra ice cream. She had an emergency reserve of two gallons in her freezer at home (one of cookies and cream, one of mint chocolate chip) but it was an emergency stash for a reason. In case she or Alex had an emotional crisis to work through, or—

Nah, it was just there as comfort food.

Because traffic was hectic and Kara didn’t drive like a maniac, Alex arrived on her Ducati before Kara actually got home. Alex waited downstairs near the front door, leaning against her bike, with one of the saddle-bags open and the takeout stashed neatly inside.

“That doesn’t look like a lot of food,” Kara said, and opened the apartment building’s front door.

“Oh ye of little food faith,” Alex said, and opened the second saddle bag. More takeout.

“My hero,” Kara beamed at her sister.

“Aw, that’s sweet.” Alex mocked. “Come on. I’m starving.”

Kara led the way upstairs, and tried not to rush faster than Alex could go.

Inside Kara’s apartment, once the door was closed, Alex asked, “So what happened?”

“Lena Luthor wants to meet Supergirl.”

“That’s not suspicious,” Alex said, because it was.

“I thought so too. But, I’ve listened to her talk all day, and I don’t think she’s actually out to trap her. Me. I am her.”

“Gee, sis, I didn’t know, the big red cape was such a subtle hint.”

“Okay you’re being mean right now,” Kara wagged wrapped chopsticks at Alex.

“It’s not me, it’s my empty stomach. I claim no culpability.” Alex said, and began to just dig into a container of lo mein. Kara took one full of fried rice and veggies and shrimp and beef, and used a spoon to get into it. Tonight was not a night for delicacy in her eating.

“So the Luthor wants to meet Supergirl,” Alex said around a mouthful of food. It was a thoughtful statement, and she looked off into space while she said it.

“Yup.” Kara said.

“It still seems dodgy.”

“It is.” Kara agreed, and took another huge bite. The food was fantastic but she wasn’t feeling a dent in her hunger yet. She wondered if she could invent a way to just tip this down her throat and swallow it whole.

Probably not. Laser eyes, frost breath, and insane strength she’s got. But a way to eat food more efficiently? No such luck.

“Why does she want to meet you?” Alex asked, and angled her head to one side. Her short, auburn hair followed the motion and brushed her shoulders.

“She wants to make good on rehabilitating LuxCorp. And she figures one of the best ways to do that is to help Supergirl.”

“That sounds more calculating than just ‘I wanna meet Supergirl.’”

“I agree,” Kara shrugged with her spoon, “But she seems earnest about earning a partnership with Supergirl. I mean, either she means that, or she was very convincing with her statements about the meeting being above water.”

“Above water?” Alex asked.

“Yeah,” Kara hesitated, then said, “That’s not the phrase is it.”

“Do you mean, above board?” Alex was gentle in her correction.

“Why is it above board?”

“Because cargo you mean to smuggle goes under the boards. And if it’s honest, it’s above-board. Visible.”

“Oh!” Kara said. “Yes. Above-board.”

“How do you know?”

“She kept talking about ways she could meet Supergirl, but rejecting them because they were sneaky. Or just ploys.”

“I’m suspicious, only because a Luthor is rejecting an underhanded technique to accomplish something.”

“Cat made a comment like that, actually.”

“You should’ve kept working for Cat.”

“Probably,” Kara agreed. “But there’s a Luthor in National City and that’s suspicious to J’onn. And I agree. So. I’ll stay around Lena. See what I can learn. She’s not that bad actually,” Kara shrugged. “She’s really nice to me. She compliments me on my hair a lot. And my clothes. She’s nice!” Kara grinned.

Alex stopped eating for a moment. Kara only noticed because of Alex’s exaggerated stillness.

“What?” Kara asked, “Alex, are you okay?” Alex never stops eating to ponder. She just slows and thinks around her mouthfuls.

“You like her,” Alex accused.

“What?” Kara squeaked. “No. No!”

“You do!” Alex started laughing, “Kara, the point was _not_ to get a crush on the lady you’re surveilling!”

“I do not have a crush on her,” Kara thumped down the tin of fried rice, the table bounced with the impact. Kara didn’t realize she’d struck the table that hard, and as things bounced briefly, she cringed and tried to settle them all without tipping anything.

Alex shook her head, “Wow. I am honestly amazed. You’re not supposed to have a crush on the target, Kara.”

“I do not,” Kara said, and tried to sound serious but Alex gave her a shit-eating grin and Kara deflated. “Look, it’s not my fault she’s really pretty and got these big eyes and smiles all sideways at me and I get stupid looking at her. And she’s mesmerizing in a boardroom, okay? She’s the smartest person in there but you don’t know it until you realize she’s four steps ahead and already won whatever argument anyone else is trying to start.”

“Oh honey,” Alex said. “You got it bad.”

“Okay you’re really mean tonight.” Kara said. “I’m not paying you back for dinner.”

“Well fine, then I take the leftovers with me.”

“No,” Kara whined. “Why must you wound me this way?”

Alex laughed, and then quieted. “Are you going to patrol tonight?”

“Yeah,” Kara said. “Lena’s got a meeting at 8 tonight with a really shady person. I heard her make the call earlier. They didn’t use each-others’ names. I may go to see what’s what.”

“Okay.” Alex said. “You need backup?”

“If I do, I’ll let you know.”

“I’ll just watch to see if part of the city randomly explodes. That should be in indicator.”

“You are so snarky tonight!”

“I know, I’m on a roll. I’m so proud.” Alex ate more food. Kara stole another tin of fried rice and hoarded it close to her. Alex nearly choked because the spectacle was so amusing.

“How are you and Maggie?” Kara asked.

“Good,” Alex spoke around a full mouth, and took a minute to chew before she continued. It _was_ a minute, because the mouthful was comically huge and Alex had to concentrate to choke it down. “We’re good. Stable. Which is really nice.”

“I bet,” Kara said.

“Not to distract from your rapidly growing crush on your boss, but have you thought about dating anymore?”

“No.” Kara sighed. “I’m still not sure what to do about James. He seems so content where he’s at right now, working for Cat. He’s growing professionally and he’s making so much progress.”

“But?” Alex prompted.

“But, I kinda miss him. But I don’t think I made the wrong decision?” Kara bunched her shoulders up. “Does that make sense?”

“It does,” Alex said. “You’re working undercover. And building a fresh romantic relationship on top of that isn’t a wise idea.”

“I hope so. I mean. I think you’re right. I just see how happy you are with Maggie and I kinda wish I had something like that.”

“That person is out there,” Alex said, and put her chop sticks down in her container to reach over and squeeze Kara’s shoulder. “I just doubt it’s your super villain boss.”

“Way to ruin the moment, Alex,” Kara said, deadpan and deflated.

Alex laughed, “Come on. I want ice cream. Let’s watch a movie.”

“I gotta go patrol soon,” Kara whined.

“That’s not for like two hours. We can totally watch something.”

“Fine, as long as it’s not scary.”

Alex chose a scary movie, because she was _absolutely_ out to prove how unforgivably cruel she really was.

Kara forgave her, only because that meant next time she could inflict the absolute sappiest movie she could find on Alex.

“I will have my revenge,” Kara whispered as she suited up to go out.

“Uh-huh. I’m taking the sesame chicken home.”

“Okay. You want some lo mein?”

“God yes,” Alex took the largest, still unopened, container. Between them, they’d annihilated about a third of the new tub of ice cream. Kara put it in her freezer to keep. It might be a nice snack when she got home from her patrol, depending on how hectic it went.

There was no telling how it’d go tonight.

“You really gonna be okay?” Alex asked as she bagged the food up and put on her riding leather jacket before she headed back downstairs.

“Yeah,” Kara nodded. “Just a routine patrol. I’ll be alright.”

“Okay. Be safe.” Alex hugged her sister fiercely, and Kara soaked up the embrace. She loved Alex, wholly and dearly, and was scared every time Alex went into the field. Not that she’d tell her that. It’d bother Alex, and Kara didn’t want to distract her, not when a distraction could kill.

Bullets don’t bounce off other people.

Kara released Alex. “Ride safe.”

“I will!” Alex nodded, and grabbed her helmet. She headed downstairs. Kara locked her apartment, and left through her window, to fly away.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I should have a fresh chapter in a couple of days to show how Lena's night goes. If you have any suggestions or feedback, please tell me! Thank you all for reading so far <3


	4. Lena's Expedition

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Lena takes a walk through National City's underbelly in an attempt to gain insight into the usurper trying to take her company away from her.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> This chapter has violence, hand-to-hand combat. No rape or assault, but Lena gets threatened by a gang of car-jackers. she also takes zero shit and beats up some fools  
> Proceed with caution, yeah?
> 
> follow me @thejollywriter on Tumblr!

National City didn’t have slums as mean as Gotham or Bludhaven. Those two took the biggest slices of that particular cake. And because of the watchful eye of Superman in Metropolis, not a lot of crime had an opportunity to flourish. There was an idea, in Metropolis, that if a crime would be committed, it had to be swift, so as not to draw the attention of the Man of Steel.

National City had a strange hybrid of the two systems. A deeply rooted underworld existed, but with Supergirl breathing down the necks of organized criminality here, major syndicates were starting to become an endangered species.

Despite that, it’s remarkably easy to have a very bad night in National City.

Lena left her personal car a few blocks away. Her shoes remained stylish but the heel was so low so as to be invisible, and the shoes were comfortable for walking. She kept her pepper spray in her left hand, and walked with her head up.

Down here, near the docks, the streetlights were unreliable, and there were blocks at a time that the light was poor enough that the only illumination came from passing cars or the lights from the apartment windows upstairs.

Lena wasn’t afraid of the dark. Not as a child, not as a grown woman. The dark isn’t the problem. Things _in_ the dark, are.

She didn’t fear aliens or nuclear attack or assassins. But a couple of loud men walking towards her in the dark?

Always.

As she neared her destination, she started to regret her decision to set this meeting. It was a terrible idea, coming here, meeting Them, and doing it on the sly.

Worse than that, she hadn’t told anyone where she was going. Not Kara, not her usual limo driver, Leon, when she asked for her private car to be brought up, she’d told absolutely no one. So if she went missing, it’d be hours until it was reported.

At least Kara would be on top of it. The only person who got into the office before Lena in the morning was Kara.

The thought distracted Lena long enough that she didn’t hear the two men step out of the dark alley she’d just passed, and begin to flank her, about ten feet back. When she did notice, it was too late.

Lena turned, pulled her pepper spray, and braced herself for the attack when she was called to, from behind.

“Lena Luthor,” a gravelly voice said. “It’s been a while.”

The two men stopped, laced their hands lightly together and held them just above their stomachs. It was supposed to be disarming gesture, but Lena knew better. It was supposed to seem non-threatening, but it meant they could still get at their guns easily.

“Be calm, Lena, they’re here to protect me, not accost you.”

“Telling me to calm down is not going to make me actually be calm,” Lena turned away from the men slowly and met Their eyes.

“Fair enough. I relent to your valid point. Be gone, fellas.”

The men released their hands, took a few steps back, turned, and returned to their sentry posts a few feet away in the alley.

“You’re awfully jumpy tonight, Lena.”

“You spooked me.”

“You didn’t usually admit to this much terror before.”

“I’m out of practice here,” Lena sighed, and put her pepper spray away. “I don’t like being scared, Reese.”

“Reese died, honey. Call me Morgan.” Their voice was stiff.

“I apologize. I didn’t know.” Lena slumped.

“Everyone gets to make a mistake once,” Morgan shrugged. “Twice, well, then I’ll consider reprimands.”

Morgan was tall, wiry, their face was smooth and clean shaven, their eyes were large and beautiful but devoid of emotion, and their voice was rough on the ears. They wore loose clothes that were both stylish, and shapeless.

“I don’t repeat mistakes,” Lena said. “That much you already know.”

Morgan smirked, but the noise sounded like a cough. “Welcome back, Ms. Luthor.”

They stood under the remains of a broken and fractured warehouse roof. Condensation dripped from the rafters and pooled unevenly on the concrete floor. Morgan made no move to invite Lena anywhere.

“What is it you desire then?” Morgan asked. They kept their hands in their pockets.

“Information, if you can provide it.”

“Hmm. And what are you willing to pay?” Morgan raised a single eyebrow.

Lena hesitated, and then sighed, “Name your favor.”

“A blank check from a Luthor?” Morgan said the words slowly, as if to savor them. “My, my, that does _reek_ of desperation, young miss.”

“Berate me if you must but do not condescend to me.” Lena squared her shoulders to Morgan.

“I have _missed_ you,” Morgan said. “Perhaps that will be my favor.”

Lena shivered, though no wind passed over her and the temperature did not change. “I don’t understand.”

“That’s a lie, and a poor one at that.”

“Why would you make _that_ your favor?”

“Why do you hide so readily from the world?” Morgan took a step towards Lena, and Lena did not retreat. “Neither Batman, nor Superman, nor any other hero brought down your brother. It wasn’t even his own hubris. He’d been outflanked and out maneuvered and you claim no credit.”

“There’s a family legacy of fratricide. I wanted no part of that curse.”

“And yet? You were the one who cornered and obliterated him. And yet? You were the one who leaked the information to the feds that got him arrested. And yet? You were the one who united the Supers against him.”

Lena looked away from Morgan. “It was necessary.”

“I know,” Morgan said. “So tell me your wish, and I will decide if it warrants my attention.”

Lena took a slow breath, “George Kirkland wants to unseat me.”

“This is not news.”

Lena held up her hand to stall Morgan, and continued, “He means to destroy me in every way that counts. I can beat him in a boardroom, I’m confident of that. His power is not limited to financial maneuvers or stock options.”

“Well, legally, you’d just have to out-buy him.”

“That’s boring, and I don’t know that I have the resources. Money doesn’t solve every one of these problems. He’s wily, and he’s incredibly abrasive, but he’s not stupid.

“The only option it appears to leave you is vigilantism. Either by your own hand, or a hired one.”

“Perhaps.” Lena hedged.

“Is that why you wish to meet with Supergirl?” Morgan grinned, their teeth straight and white and they gleamed in the dark.

Lena wasted no breathing asking how Morgan knew that. All that mattered, was they did, and that was enough. Instead, Lena said, “No. I don’t want Supergirl to fight my battles for me.”

“My my, this new line of staunch moral uprightness is new for you!”

“I meant it, when I said I wanted to start over.”

“It would certainly appear that way,” Morgan drew each word out with peculiar emphasis. “So if the vigilante is _not_ the Girl of Steel, what is your wish?”

Lena considered, “I may be able to fight him. If I knew what resources he has.”

“You? Don’t be stupid. Fighting one’s brother is hardly a preparation to fight an entirely organized criminal fraternity.”

Lena angled her head, “So he is tied to the mafia here.”

“Did I say that?” But there was no heat in the rebuke. It was for form’s sake, in case someone else was listening. Lena didn’t know who’d eavesdrop but she took no chances.

“He’s not playing above-board?” Lena asked.

Morgan coughed again, “No. Certainly not. And Kirkland means to erode your company from the inside out.”

“In what way?” Lena took a step forward. “What do you know?”

“Oh darling,” Morgan said. “Even a blank check can’t pay for _that_ piece of wisdom.”

Lena groaned in frustration. “What is it you want?”

“Kirkland has his own informant, on the Battersea side of the city. I want him gone. This city is mine. I tolerate no competition in the information market. And normally I’d take care of this myself, as a matter of principle. But?” Morgan grinned and shrugged, “A Luthor came to me with a blank check.”

Lena deflated. “You wish me to kill him? That’s small-time, even by your standards.”

“Hardly. I mean to discourage competition. Make a statement with this, make it a spectacle, make it unique in a way that reminds me of the way you fought your brother, and if you do, I’ll reward you _handsomely_ with intelligence that you can’t find anywhere else.”

“I don’t know how to begin.”

“His name is Eugene. And he’s easy to find.”

With that, Morgan turned away, “Oh, and you’ve got twenty-four hours. It shouldn’t take you that long to figure this out.”

Morgan vanished into the shadows, and Lena wanted to scream in frustration.

Instead, she kicked at a rock, and stomped back to her car. She kept the pepper spray in hand this time, and her sleeves rolled up.

She was not going to go quietly tonight if someone stepped to her.

 

#

 

Lena sat in the driver’s seat of her old Dodge Charger and thrummed her fingers over the steering wheel. She was parked along the roadside, engine off, windows rolled up. Thin rivulets of rain dripped down the windshield and the side windows, and partially obscured her view of the dive bar up the way.

The bar was called McHenry’s, and it was a place she used to frequent when she was a teenager, for no other reason than no one cared about Luthors.

And they gave her no flak for being underage. She caused no trouble, and they gave her no shit.

Right now, she watched the door and waited. A fat, heavily muscled bouncer guarded the door, wearing a wide-brimmed hat that caused the rain to sluice off to the sides, and keep his face and neck dry. He gave two warnings to anyone trying to push through the door. One, with a hand to the chest and telling them to back off, and a second, where he socked them in the face.

Lena wondered if she could really just out-buy Kirkland and be done with it.

The door of the bar opened, and out stepped a short, scrawny man with no hair on the top of his head, and uneven patches of beard along his jaw and upper lip. He patted the fat guard on his shoulder, said something, and vanished back inside.

Lena sighed. She had to go in after all.

She pushed the door open, locked the Charger, and headed into the bar. She stepped in front of the bouncer, met his eyes, and waited.

He glared down at her, and said, “Last time I saw you, you faked it.”

“Last time I saw you, there was only half of you.” Lena said.

He grinned, “Welcome back.”

He stood aside, and she moved into the bar. Music played at the back, a live band from somewhere overseas. She didn’t recognize the music or the band and promptly ignored them.

The short man with the patchwork beard threaded his way through the crowd towards the back of the bar. He was the owner, but he only ever came out to deal with people himself if Wilhelm was selling, upstairs. Fortunately, she had no business with the owner tonight.

The bar itself was to the right, tables with narrow chairs littered the floor in the middle of the room, and booths lined the wall to the left. There was an upper story, with booths and benches up there, and thick support columns that framed the edges of the booths on the ground floor.

Lena took the stairs to the upper level.

At the very back, nearest the band in the left corner, was Wilhelm. He was handsome, rugged, had salt and pepper hair, a perfectly kept beard, a slick gray suit, and a beautiful man and woman on either arm.

Lena walked back. A guard, as tall as Wilhelm, and less overtly strong as Pete outside stepped into her path.

“Open up,” he said, and flicked the lapel of her coat.

“No.” She said.

“Then you got no business here.” He said, and crossed his arms.

His was a stupid tactical decision, and she decided that she wasn’t going to tolerate it. She sighed, let her shoulders slump and she seemed to visibly relax. Then, with alarming speed, she hauled her knee straight up into his groin, and as he began to double over, she grabbed him by his ear, and slammed his head into the edge of the table next to her.

He collapsed. Some people downstairs looked up, the beautiful man at the edge of the booth leapt to his feet and pulled a pistol, and Lena took two steps before Wilhelm grabbed his gun, and said, “It’s quite alright, Jacob. Stand easy.”

She stopped. Jacob looked at Wilhelm, then back at Lena. The guard she’s crudely castrated moaned and cried on the ground and puked on himself from the agony.

“Lena. An interesting introduction tonight?”

“I’ve had a long day, Wil, and I resent being pushed around.”

“I don’t disagree with your actions, but you will admit that security is a precaution we must all take?”

She didn’t answer. Because he was right, and if she were absolutely honest with herself, kneeing the guard was probably—

No. She’s not sorry.

“Have a seat,” He said. “Are you hungry? Thirsty?”

Yes, to both of those things, “I ate before I came.”

“A shame. The potato soup is almost edible tonight.”

Lena grinned. An old joke. There was one edible dish here, and it was the potato soup. It was fantastic, world-class, as far as Lena could tell, but it was the only thing they made well.

This bar’s purpose was to sell beer and anonymity for people who didn’t want to get noticed. Food was a secondary concern.

“So. What brings you back from your hiatus?”

“I’m looking for someone.” Lena said.

“Oh? Business or pleasure.”

“Business.” Lena said. And tried not to shudder. While Wilhelm’s competence as an organizer and scrounger was world-class, his approach was so cliché it bordered on cringe-worthy.

“What kind?”

“Information,” Lena said. “I don’t want to buy it.”

He looked at her, and considered for a long moment, “Do you want data, or the source.”

“Source.”

“Will my source survive this exchange?”

“Certainly. If they’re polite.”

“Lena, you’re not a bad liar. And I’m sure your skill carries you well in a boardroom. But your technique is lacking, considering some of us lie to survive.”

Lena thrummed her fingers on her thigh. He had a point. But if she hedged, and admitted that she needed to eliminate the informant, one way or another, would that screw her out of useful information?

“Do you do business with Morgan?”

“Certainly. When I can.”

“Allowing me access to this source will ensure Morgan remains uncontested.”

“I could not find it in me to care less if Morgan has to work for a living or not. If they’re so bent out of shape about competition, they should deal with it themselves.”

Lena looked at him, and waited.

Wilhelm took a moment, looked briefly confused, and then breathed, “Ah. I get it.”

Lena shrugged.

“Wow. This is certainly a moonlighting event unlike many others. A CEO who doubles as an assassin. How extraordinary.”

“Elimination is a really broad word, Wilhelm. No one needs to die.”

“Well. If you promise you’ll make an effort to make this interesting, I’ll tell you where he is.”

“Oh, I guarantee it’ll be interesting,” Lena could promise that much. Beyond that, she had no idea.

Wilhelm seemed to weigh the options. And then said, “Sure. Helping Morgan aligns with my interests this time. Battersea Imports. He’s got a nice office, top floor. Well armored, on all sides. Reinforced, all that jazz. I wouldn’t try and get at him with an army.”

Lena deflated. She glanced at her watch. She had another four hours of night before she had to go home and shower and get ready to face her day job.

If nothing else, she could scout the location. And try and hit him tomorrow night. She had another twenty hours until Morgan’s deadline.

“Who is he?” Lena asked.

“A nobody. A guy who tried to start an extortion racket. It failed. Now he just listens and sells what he hears.”

“Not likely to make enemies, then, if he vanishes?”

“Sure,” Wilhelm lied. “No big deal.”

Lena cringed, internally. “Do I owe you anything for this?”

“A favor to be called in at a later date.”

“Within reason. Nothing imported. No one murdered.”

“Fine,” He said. “Certainly I can imagine a number of services you’d provide me that don’t involve overt illegality or bloodshed.”

She disliked how he phrased that, and instead climbed immediately to her feet, “Thank you.” And walked away.

The guard still hadn’t recovered. She left in a hurry, without getting anything to drink.

Back at her car, she spritzed hand sanitizer from a bottle in the door pocket into her hands, rubbed down the car-door handle, her hands, and her keys, twice, before she got back behind the wheel.

She shook her head. “This is stupid.”

She drove off towards Battersea Imports.

 

#

 

Battersea Imports was in a terrible state of disrepair. It was a four story building with glass windows on the sides from floor to ceiling. Most of those windows were either broken or boarded. Of the original, enormous marquis on top, only one letter remained upright and lit, which was the giant B.

Across the street, about a block away, was a parking garage. It wasn’t in much better shape than Battersea was, but it was dark and quiet and it gave Lena an opportunity to look at the Import building without harassment.

She had a powerful set of binoculars in her car, and she used those to scout the place. The binoculars fluctuated between infrared and night vision.

They were three years old now, too, and the last time she’d used them, she’d used them to scout her brother’s fortress before she’d assaulted it.

Well. Not so much assaulted, as snuck into.

The top floor of Battersea was in great shape, however. Every window as intact, and looked to be twice the normal thickness. Bullet-proof, then.

There was a secondary, armored core, a twenty-by-twenty foot room in the middle that she couldn’t see into. She assumed it was the Eugene the Snitch’s office.

Besides, she’d figure it out soon enough once she got inside.

She lowered the binoculars. That raised a second question. Could she actually do it? Could she actually fight her way to him, confront him, make her decision about how he gets ‘eliminated’ and satisfy Morgan’s requirements, without getting killed?

She needed gear for that. She wasn’t sure if the gear she used to infiltrate her brother’s facility and take him down would be applicable here.

Besides that, she was three years out of practice in sneaking, shooting, and tactical stuff.

Not only that, the approach as treacherous at best. The blocks surrounding Battersea were bare. Nothing to hide behind, no cover, just some streetlights, and churned dirt where the demolition left ruined earth.

Lena sighed. She could figure that much out tomorrow night.

Getting in wasn’t ever the hard part. Getting out alive, was.

She looked at her watch. Three hours until she needed to get ready for work. The night was shot, as far as progress was concerned. Maybe she could retreat to her place, and get some—

“That’s a nice car,” A rough male voice said. Lena sighed, set her binoculars on the thick concrete wall in front of her, and turned.

A tall man, broad in the shoulders, wearing a knit cap and a leather jacket, stood at the trunk of her Charger. Two other men stood with him.

“I was on my way to work, but I saw this car here, and I think to myself, I just gotta have this.”

“No.” Lena said.

“I’m sorry,” he laughed, “Did you think I was asking.”

“Just, don’t,” Lena sighed. She picked up her binoculars and started towards the driver’s door. “I was just leaving.”

One of them circled around the front to flank her, the second came around the truck side, and the big leader followed him, too.

She gripped one tube of the binoculars as hard as she could, and as the man on the left reached for her, she swung, in a short, fast arch, up into his nose and jaw. He staggered, blood burst from his split lip and crushed nose, and yelled.

One of them grabbed her from behind, and she stomped immediately on his foot, slammed her head back into his face, and as his grip slacked, twisted in his arms. She bashed the binoculars down on the top of his head, and he collapsed.

The big leader pulled a knife, spread his feet wide, and began to circle her.

Lena’s breathing came in hard, fast gasps, and she faced him. He lunged at her, stabbed, she twisted the binoculars against his knife hand, bashed it away, and threw her elbow up at his face. He partially blocked, she caught him square in the jaw, and his head rocked back.

He hoisted his knee, and drove her back a few steps. She staggered, regained her footing, he slashed in at her with a fast, heavy arc.

Again, she stepped into him, blocked with her forearm, and jabbed straight up at his face with the binoculars. Any luck, she’d crush his nose, maybe drive it into his—

He gasped, and then was yanked backwards. His eyes went comically wide, and he flew across the room, arms and legs stretched out in front of him, and slammed into the concrete barricade on the far side. He fell limp.

In his place, curly blonde hair drifting idly in the wind, wearing a red skirt, tall red boots, and a blue, long-sleeved top with a big red S on the chest, stood Supergirl.

Also, the giant red cape gave her away.

Lena could only stare. She had great and elaborate plans about how she was gonna meet Supergirl, and this sure as shit wasn’t it.

She was gonna meet her at a party, be all charming and interesting and intriguing.

Lena did not anticipate meeting her with a split lip surrounded by unconscious men who’d unsuccessfully tried to carjack her.

Lena stood up a little straighter. She lobbed the broken pair of binoculars into the back seat of her Charger. She smoothed her coat, and faced Supergirl.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Next we see how Kara experiences a "night on the town" as she crosses paths with Lena in the midst of Lena's search. The slow burn is starting to come to a close, though the story will go on.   
> mostly because I'm not into that slow burn noise and AM about that togetherness. so. The work is evolving! hopefully


	5. Kara's Night Shift

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Kara "Supergirl" Danvers deals with a regular night patrolling National City and casually trying to keep Lena Luthor out of trouble.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> There's abuse in this chapter, physical violence, and confrontation. Also anger and angst. And professional embarrassment. 
> 
> follow me @thejollywriter on Tumblr!

Kara Danvers floated over National City and listened. With her hearing, she could pick up so many things. Snippets of conversation, some shouting matches, some professions of love, a lot of idle talk. She heard cars honk, tires squeal, some small crashes.

Nothing sounded out of place. She glanced down and saw Lena walking down the street. Kara’d watched her park a few minutes ago, and now Lena walked towards a place Kara remembered as a block where she’d stopped an alien dropping a meteorite.

There were no scars on the block, however, from that attempt.

Two men stepped out of the alley behind Lena. Kara leaned down, and threw herself at the ground, as fast as she could—

She came up short as the men stopped, were told to back off, and Lena began to have a conversation with someone who introduced themselves as Morgan.

The more Kara listened, the more disturbed she became. It was a roundabout conversation, to be sure, but the longer it went on, the more certain Kara became that Lena was being asked to kill someone.

Maybe she couldn’t be trusted after all. That hurt a part of Kara that she didn’t know what to do with.

She’s a Luthor, right? She’s not trustworthy to begin with. That was why J’onn sent Kara to spy on her. But this? This was on a whole different level of untrustworthiness. And it hurt, because Kara thought that maybe everyone might be wrong about Lena.

Kara _wanted_ everyone to be wrong about Lena. Lena, who smiled with her whole face. Lena, who remembered birthdays for everyone. Lena, who wiped student loan debts of her employees without them knowing and donated to college funds.

She wanted the Lena only Kara could witness to be the truth.

Lena started her walk back. Kara followed her, from a mile up.

That wasn’t creepy, right? She wasn’t just looking after Lena, right? Kara was looking out for the whole city! And Lena seemed to be in trouble for a moment.

She was still in trouble, as far as Kara could figure. But she didn’t know the details of how or why, yet.

What was Lena trying to accomplish? And why did she want to beat Kirkland in such a roundabout manner? So many questions, and so few answers, rattling around in Kara’s head.

She followed Lena to her car. Overhead, an airliner was on approach to National City International Airport.

Lena adjusted her course so she wouldn’t be in the way. Saving an airliner would be a nice headline: saving an airliner that she ran into? Way less pleasant.

She watched Lena drive away.

When Lena arrived at the bar, Kara heard a crying little girl a few blocks away. She flew over, and approached cautiously, trying to figure out what was going on before she made her appearance.

The girl sat on a fire escape, with the window open. Inside, Kara heard her parents shouting.

Kara’s heart broke for the girl. She drifted down, slowly, into the girl’s sightline. She looked up, gasped, and stared at Supergirl.

“I heard you crying,” Kara said.

The girl wiped at her eyes with the sleeve of her PJs. “I’m okay.”

Supergirl put her hands on her hips, and the little girl sighed. “I’m sorry. I don’t know what to say.”

“What’s going on?” Kara looked into the apartment. Through the walls, she could see two people pacing back and forth, howling at each other. The conversation seemed to be over something petty, but the girl was still deeply hurt by it.

“I didn’t make dinner really good.” The girl said. “Mom was working and dad just wanted a good meal. I tried. I really did. But it didn’t turn out well.”

The girl drew her legs to her chest and hugged them close to her.

Kara didn’t know how to immediately respond. The girl was in pain but she didn’t appear to have been beaten. Kara had no idea how to intervene here. An alien trying to smash the city was one thing. But how did she fight back against and abuser for the abused?

How did she defend the hurt girl without ensuring that she’d get hurt twice as bad, once the fear of the confrontation had worn off?

Kara didn’t know.

“Do you mind if I sit with you?” Kara asked.

“No,” The girl shook her head. Kara climbed over the railing, and sat down next to the girl. The girl shifted over to make room.

“What’s your name?” Kara asked.

“Renee,” She said.

“That’s a pretty name,” Kara said. “What do you want to be when you grow up?”

Renee blushed and looked away.

“It’s okay,” Kara said. “You can tell me if you want to.”

“I want to be brave like you.” Renee didn’t look at Kara. She didn’t say it with any of the usual reverence Kara heard from other little kids. She said it quietly, with desperation and conviction.

Kara turned and knelt in front of Renee. “Well, I can tell you that you’re already brave.”

Renee looked up. “Really?”

“Absolutely,” Kara said. “Surviving this takes an incredible amount of bravery. I’d be scared to go through it every day.”

“What do I do now?” Renee asked. “How do I please him?”

Kara thought about her history with Mon-El, and though he was long gone, it still hurt to recall, even here. Especially here.

“Well,” Kara said, slowly, “It’s hard to say. But I want you to remember something. Okay?”

“Okay,” Renee nodded.

“No matter what he says to you, no matter what he does, no matter what he claims, none of this is your fault. Okay?”

“Really?”

“Really,” Kara squeezed her hands a little, “There’s nothing you can do to please him. Nor ease his hurt. That may be why he lashes out. Because he’s hurting too. But I do know this. You don’t have to fix him.”

“But he’s my dad. And I love him.”

Kara sighed. She’d done this all wrong. Maybe Maggie would have known what to say to—

“What the hell are you doing?” he asked. Kara looked over, and saw Renee’s father in the bedroom, staring at Kara and Renee. “You get away from her.”

Supergirl backed up, slowly. “What the hell are you doing here?” he snapped.

“I heard her crying,” Kara said, and exercised great restraint at not letting her anger into her voice. “I came to help.”

“We don’t need help from the likes of you!” He yelled, “Renee, get in here.”

The girl scrambled away from Supergirl.

“You fly right back to whatever planet you escaped from and you leave us the hell alone!” he slammed the window in her face, and pulled the shades.

Anger boiled through Kara, she struggled to contain it and not lash out immediately at anything. She’d break whatever she struck, and she’d just make it worse if she tried to fight him.

She carefully climbed over the railing of the fire escape, drifted a few feet away, and once she and her cape were clear, flew straight up, as fast as she possibly could. As the sounds of the city began to fade below her, she roared in frustration.

She screamed until her throat burned, and when she winded herself, she stopped, high in the sky. Her throat hurt, she was lightheaded, but her anger hadn’t dissipated.

She got her bearings, and accelerated as hard as she could, to the east. In Nevada, according to J’onn, was a five hundred square mile ‘test range’ where if she needed to, she could punch some rocks and no one would give her any grief about it.

Turns out the government was all about giving her space to vent frustration where no one could get hurt. And it was a nuclear test range, so it’s not like it was prime real-estate anyway.

She flew higher, into a ballistic arch, and then barreled at the ground at high speed. She put her fist out in front of her, continued to steepen the dive, until she smashed, fist first and straight down, into the ground.

The impact jarred her hard, but it didn’t hurt. Like a leech, it drew every ounce of her anger out of her and left Kara winded, in the crater she’d made. Dust settled around her. She coughed, and sat down in the bottom of the crater.

She needed to talk to someone. This was untenable. Abuse was something she encountered more often than not. And she needed better ways to deal with it. Deescalate, offer help, something. Trying to help, failing, getting pissed and running off to punch a hole in Nevada wasn’t a viable solution every night.

Speaking of. She should probably get back to her patrol.

She drifted up slowly, dusted herself off, and made her way back towards National City. It didn’t take long. The sounds of the city began to return to her ears, and she listened for anything amiss.

“Give me the car.” A hard man’s voice said.

“No,” Lena Luthor answered.

“I wasn’t asking.” His threat was implicit.

“Lena!” Kara said.

Supergirl looked down at the city, spotted the parking garage where she’d heard the sound come from, and flew towards it as fast as she could. 

She dove into the garage and as she landed, she saw Lena bash someone’s head with a huge pair of binoculars, and another man slash at her with a knife. Kara lunged, got between them, and shoved the man backwards so hard he flew into the far wall and collapsed, knocked unconscious.

Lena stood there with a bloodied lip, hair askew, breathing heavily, and stared at Kara.

Kara swallowed hard, and tried to regain her composure. She had no idea Lena was so intense. Nor did she know Lena could handle herself.

Kara expected to feel more surprised than she actually was.

Lena dropped the binoculars into her car, and brushed herself off.

“Are you alright?” Kara asked.

“Yes. Thank you. I appreciate your saving me.” Lena sounded calm.

“It’s what I do,” Kara tried to be cool and nonchalant and failed, miserably.

Sweating, bloodied, and shook, Lena was still a powerful force to reckon with. Despite the dust-up, Lena seemed totally at ease with what was going on.

“You’re taller than I expected,” Lena said, and took a hesitant step towards Supergirl.

Kara looked down at her boots, shrugged sheepishly. How was Kara supposed to respond? Cocky and boastful? Humble? Blushing stupidly because Lena had a little smile on her face and still managed to look desirable and awesome?

Kara began to wonder if just staying in with Alex and eating too much had been the better option for tonight.

Lena took a few cautious steps towards Kara. “How did you know I was in trouble?” Lena asked. She pulled a small clean white cloth from an inner pocket of her coat and dabbed at her lip.

“I, uh, I heard you tell them No.” Kara should really fly off but she didn’t want to just dump Lena unexpectedly. She had no idea if that’d have unintended consequences.

Lena nodded slowly. “Well, I’m grateful you were paying attention.”

Kara blushed. “You’re welcome.” Kara wanted to say more, the instinct to ramble was strong, but she bit her lip and tried to focus.

Lena glanced down at Kara’s lips and Kara’s brain blanked wholly.

“Is anyone else in trouble right now?” Lena asked.

“What?” Kara snapped back to herself.

“I want to make sure I’m not distracting you.” Lena folded the cloth up. The cut wasn’t major as far as Kara could tell. The blood had already stopped flowing, it was just going to bruise and cause some pain for Lena.

Despite the obvious wound and the unconscious men on either side of Lena, she seemed utterly intent on Kara.

“No,” Kara said with less conviction than she intended. “I mean. I’m not sure. And I’d hear it if they were. So. Not right now?”

“Are you alright, Supergirl?” Lena asked, head cocked to one side.

Kara flushed, and her immediate response was _don’t look at me like that, that’s not fair._

What she said was, “Fine,” Kara squeaked. “Um. Yeah.”

“You seem off-balance.” Lena enjoyed this more than she should.

_You are incredibly pretty and I don’t understand why you are distracting me so bad_ , Kara thought but did not articulate it.

“I didn’t expect to encounter you out here.” Kara said, and immediately kicked herself.

“Oh yeah? How do you mean?”

“It doesn’t seem like a place a CEO would go.”

“Ah. I’m to remain isolated in the Ivory tower, is that right?” Lena didn’t ask the question with any anger. If anything, she was teasing Kara.

Kara ground her teeth together, “I wouldn't presume to dictate what you do in your time.”

“Well I’m grateful to have Supergirl’s approval about how I live.”

“You get bored in your corporate view and you go looking for fistfights?” Kara asked.

“A girl’s gotta blow off steam somehow. Surely you can’t tell me there’s no primal satisfaction in catching an asteroid or rescuing an airliner full of people.”

Kara looked away. She hated how on-point Lena seemed to be. Kara’d seen her be that way during boardroom meetings, but this was an entirely new experience. Kara had never been the focus of Lena’s intense observation and cutting-edge wit.

“Yeah,” Kara hedged. “It’s still stressful.”

“You should try things my way,” Lena said. “Less stress.”

“No,” Supergirl met Lena’s eyes. “I don’t beat people up because I’m bored.”

Lena lifted her chin briefly, “I wouldn't think you would. It’s nice to see the confirmation, though.”

“What are you getting at?” Kara crossed her arms over her chest.

“I’m trying to see if the Supergirl façade is more than a costume.”

“You think I’m a fraud?”

“I think I am unhealthily interested in who and what you are.” Lena said without a moment’s hesitation.

“Don’t be,” Kara said. “It’s not a fun interest to have.”

“I disagree. I haven’t been this fascinated in years.” Lena said.

“You’ll forgive me if I find your fascination uncomfortable. The last Luthor who got fascinated nearly killed my cousin.”

Lena paused at that and her face fell. She looked to one side, and took a deep breath. “Supergirl, I’m sorry I—“

Across town, Lena heard a crash, and then people begin to howl in pain. Kara sighed, and shook her head, “Look, can you finish that thought some other time? I need to, uh—“ she gestured away.

“Go, please. Go. Save the world.”

“You stay safe.” Kara pointed at Lena, then ran at the edge of the parking garage before she lifted off.

Kara flew into the air, towards the sound of the explosion, kicking herself mentally the entire way.

Worse than that, how was she going to face Lena today?

As she approached the site of the crash, Kara realized it was just that. A car crash. Paramedics were already there and assisting, and it looked like it’d all be taken care of.

She looked back towards the parking garage. Lena Luthor drove away, to her penthouse apartment, Kara assumed.

Kara herself decided to call it a night. The sun would rise soon, and the day shift could handle anything that cropped up, so long as it wasn’t extraterrestrial.

She drifted back to her apartment. When she climbed through her window and shrugged out of her cape, she was exhausted to the core of herself. She decided the sprint to the moon and back had been extra, and unnecessary.

She was in the middle of getting out of her uniform when her phone rang. She looked at the caller I.D.; it was Lena.

“Yes, Ms. Luthor?” Kara asked, eyes closed when she put the phone to her ear.

“I apologize for waking you, Kara,” Lena said. “I just wanted to say that I was feeling sick this evening and I’m not sure I want to come into the office today. Don’t want to spread whatever bug I’ve got around.”

Kara wondered if she should have called Lena on her lie. But decided against it, “I’m sorry to hear that! Is there anything I can do to help?”

“No, thank you Kara. Take today off.”

“Are you sure?”

“Certainly,” Lena said. “Like I said. One of us should have a life. Maybe go to a movie, perhaps?”

“I’ll see if there’s anything showing.” Kara walked into her bedroom and scrounged for her comfiest pajamas. She had no desire to get of those today if she had a choice.

“Thank you, Ms. Danvers,” Lena said. “Sleep well.”

“Same to you, Ms. Luthor. I hope you feel better soon.”

“Nothing a little rest won’t fix,” Lena said with a sigh, and hung up. Kara looked at her phone, and set it down on her night stand.

She wondered if she could trade places with Clark for a day. Surely reporting on his own heroics was easier than acting like Kara and Supergirl were two drastically different people in Lena’s office.

It wasn’t that, Kara realized, so much as it was the charade that Lena perpetrated.

Why did she want to talk to Supergirl? And it’s not like Lena lacked an opportunity to bring up wanting to potentially work _with_ Supergirl when she’d intervened in the parking garage.

What was Lena up to?

Kara decided to figure it out. In the morning. After she made herself two or three dozen pancakes.

Her stomach rumbled. She might make pancakes sooner, actually. Even the quick-mix pancakes sounded appetizing. 

As she walked into the bathroom to shower, her phone rang again. No, she decided, she’s gonna ignore it, shower, go to sleep, and that’ll be that. It’s been a long, _long_ day and she’s not gonna mess with—

She dropped her clothes on the edge of the sink and rushed back into her room to pick up the phone. It was J’onn.

“Hello?”

“Did you go punch Nevada?” J’onn sounded even more tired than she felt. She cringed.

“Yes.”

“Why?” he didn’t sound mad, just exasperated. “I need to explain to seismologists why there’s an unexplainable tremor showing up around the world.”

“Because there was an abusive guy who got mad at his daughter and I couldn’t help and that weapon's range in Nevada was the only thing I could punch that wouldn’t break when I hit it.”

“You know, if I had this conversation with anyone else, I’d get us both committed. And yet, that sounds quite reasonable, all things considered.”

“I’m sorry.” Kara tried not to pout. 

“It’s alright. We’ll write it off as a weapon’s test. Not like they can tell us it wasn’t.”

“I’m sorry, J’onn. I’ll try and do better next time.”

“I understand needing to blow off steam, Kara,” J’onn said. “I do. Next time, call someone before you go. Or send a text. Something.”

“Okay. I will. I promise.”

“Alright.” J’onn hung up. Kara put the phone down again. And went straight into her kitchen for the tub of ice cream. She’d shower after she ate it.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Next time: Lena spends the rest of her night trying to remember if she is physically capable of the attack she needs to mount the following night, and stews on her run-in with Supergirl. 
> 
> Thank you for reading!!!!!!!


	6. Lena's Kinetic Memory

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Lena Luthor works out, stews over Supergirl, and tries to remember how to use a bow.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> follow me @thejollywriter on tumblr!

Lena Luthor walked into the lobby of her apartment building. It had marble floors, an onyx front desk, a gilded chandelier, subtle guards spread judiciously around the place, a 24 hour room service that included laundering, food stuffs, and mechanic services in the basement car garage.

It was an extravagant and comfortable place to live, and Lena preferred it to her out-of-town retreat for no other reason than she enjoyed the view from her balcony.

She rode the elevator by herself to the top floor. There was a wide hallway outside the elevator that led to her front door. Across the hall was a janitor’s closet, and a stairwell door was next to the elevator shaft.

Once in her penthouse, the doors locked and she safely ensconced inside, she deflated.

The night had been long and largely crap. Too many confrontations, too much unnecessary bullshit, and the real icing on this particular venture into personal stupidity was her snarky and antagonistic conversation with Supergirl.

What was she actually thinking? She wanted to make a peaceful introduction to the hero. And what she did then, was not peaceful.

And Lena took away the entirely wrong detail from her first encounter. The one that burned into Lena’s mind was _not_ that Supergirl was an astute fighter, or as Good as the news reports seemed to indicate, but she _blushed_ with great ease.

That thought gave Lena a great deal of pause. Supergirl, hair blown by the wind off the coast, eyes bright and cheeks red with blush because Lena complimented her.

Lena smiled, and then winced as the action tugged on her split lip. She shook her head and continued into her penthouse.

She wanted a shower. Her jaunt through the depths of the city left her feeling sticky, like there was a layer of grime that coated her. A shower would do her good.

She stripped in her bedroom, and wondered if it was worth it to try and wash these, or just burn them and replace them. She hadn’t worn her nicest clothes specifically because of how dirty she anticipated her night being, but she was loathe to discard anything. She hadn’t been very old when she was adopted by the Luthors, but she remembered having one shirt. One pair of pants.

If nothing else, she clung to the memory to keep her grounded amid the excess of the Luthor family. Her brother never had the same perspective, nor her parents. There was always more, that was the philosophy. There was always more.

Lena didn’t know if there would be so she worked to ensure there was always _enough_.

She dropped the clothes in the hamper. She’d start a load later, when she woke up.

She grabbed loose, comfortable clothes instead of PJs to wear after her shower.

She lingered under the heat of the water, letting the pressure scour her clean. It was relaxing, and it grounded her enough that the anxiety about what she needed to do later began to fade.

With that, she could think about her assault. That’s what it was. No two ways about it. It had been an assault on her brother’s facility, it would be an assault on the snitch’s office tonight. Sixteen hours from now.

She washed her hair again. Was she up for the attack? Theoretically, yes. She was still in pretty good shape. She hadn’t worked out as hard as she did in preparation to fight her brother, but she’d kept the routine.

It was nice; a secret joy she could exploit for her personal pleasure.

She doubted many other CEOs knew parkour. Or hand-to-hand combat. They paid people to know those things.

There was a difference between hiring an expert, and forgoing personal knowledge out of elitism. It was one lesson she’d gotten from her father, and it’d been unexpected. He hadn’t even realized he taught it to her.

He preferred to know what interested him, and he discarded everything that didn’t. Even if it was useful.

As a result, his accountants cooking the books was a fairly regular occurrence. And then he’d hire someone to sort it out, deal with the thieves, and go back to being ignorant in the actual minutiae of his company.

Lena turned off the water. She was restless now, and ached to begin. To see if she could actually manage.

She dried off, got dressed, and went into her secret room. Fully half of her penthouse was off-limits to any personnel inside the building. No maintenance, no cleaning staff, no one.

It wasn’t a vault, it didn’t house treasures or valuables. It wasn’t a panic room, not technically.

It was a place where she kept her secret.

In her bedroom, next to a Degas painting, she put her palm on the wall, peered into the narrow slit where the retinal scanner was, and the wall retracted away from her, and slid to one side. Beyond it, was a sort of personal gym.

It had high ceilings, about twenty feet to the top, weight-lifting equipment on one side, and an archery range on the other. Digital holograms she could shoot with a laser system programmed into the bow, analogue targets to practice with physical arrows.

On the yoga mat in the corner, she went through her most basic stretches, to limber up.

And then, feeling ready and warmed up and focused, she looked at her bow. It was a recurve, made from sturdy laminated wood. She bought it for herself after Lex went down. A reward and a promise.

Quietly, she went through her ritual. She took the bow, and a fresh tube of bowstring wax, and knelt on thick cushions near the rest for the bow. There, she carefully and methodically worked the wax into the string, using her fingers to feel for abrasions in the wire.

It was a methodical process, one she did to calm herself. She wondered if this is what people were supposed to feel when they prayed. Serenity, a sort of bone-deep quiet, a reverence for the action and a peace beyond it.

The wax worked in, she rose to her feet in a smooth motion, and set the bow into the rest. She strapped the forearm guard to her left arm.

That done, she slung the quiver over her back, and collected the bow once more. She kicked off her slippers, and barefoot, padded over to the firing line.

She drew an arrow, and knocked it against the bowstring. She rested it on the shelf, and took a slow breath. Left arm bent, she lifted her right elbow, and drew the string back, using her back muscles and not her arms. She exhaled slowly, sighed beyond the edge of the arrow, and fired.

The string snapped forward, the arrow streaked away and punched into the target. Low, very low, but it didn’t bother Lena.

She’d shake the cobwebs off soon enough.

She drew another arrow. Knocked it, aimed, and fired again. Higher.

She reloaded, aimed much higher this time, and fired. Just above the bull’s eye.

Another arrow loaded, she shot.

Dead center.

She smiled, lowered the bow, and walked to the target to collect the arrows. She’d practice far more tonight, but it felt good to find the groove again.

Now she worked on speed and accuracy. There was a line her old coach used to champion: slow is smooth, smooth is fast.

Speed comes from reliable technique.

She continued to practice until the sun cast her shadow over her targets as it rose behind her.

Her eyes were droopy, and no amount of yawning or stretching or rubbing at her eyes made her feel any more awake.

She collected her arrows, returned them to the quiver, hung both bow and quiver up, laid the forearm guard next to the bow, and went to bed.

She went with a smile on her face and a little bit of faith in her heart. It hadn’t been a bad day. She’d seen Kara blush a couple of times. That was a highlight. And, that night, Lena made Supergirl blush too.

Kara had this little habit of looking to the side and then down at her feet. She’d shuffle them about for a moment while she recovered her composure.

When she’d made Supergirl blush in the parking garage tonight, she’d looked to the side, and then down at her feet and kicked at an imaginary stone—

Lena opened her eyes wide and stared at her far wall.

“No fucking way.”

She was going into the office today after all.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I like bows. And I like Lena. and the math equaled: giving Lena a bow and empowering her to be a vigilante. Because why the heck not.   
> next time: Kara has an interesting day and Supergirl has another chat with Lena.


	7. Kara's Day Job

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Kara "Supergirl" Danvers has a long-ass day. She confronts an attack on LuxCorp, some feelings for Lena, and deals with the aftermath of her night. And also Cronuts.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> There's violence, intimidation, snark, and also talk about abuse in this chapter. 
> 
> Follow me @thejollywriter on Tumblr!

Kara Danvers sat at her desk outside Lena Luthor’s empty executive office, and stewed. Stewed on her long night, stewed on how she had no life and didn’t actually take the day off despite Lena’s insistence she do so, stewed over the fact that Lena overrode her thoughts so easily she might as well be made of mental kryptonite.

It was patently unfair that Lena could do that. Surely there were rules against being that attractive and distracting.

Surely there were?

Kara gave up. She wasn’t going to be able to focus on her work. She wasn’t sure it mattered, anyway. It was her job to interface between the whole of LuxCorp, and Lena. When there was no Lena in the office, the interference was handled by the other secretaries and assistants on the executive level.

She rose, grabbed her coat, and decided to go for coffee. Or donuts. Or cronuts! That was something Alex told her about a few days ago. Kara had no idea what it was, but it was a pastry that was supposedly More and Better than just a donut.

And Kara was all about that.

Kara found the coffee shop two blocks from LuxCorp tower. The line was long but Kara didn’t mind. She didn’t exactly have any place to be anyway. Not unless Lena got a wild hair to come in despite being sick.

Kara rolled her eyes. She was no sicker than Kara was.

She stopped herself. Maybe she was sick. Kara remembered, as a kid, Alex would appear fine one day, and then have a fever and get ill the next. It was always a fast thing, it just happened.

Maybe it’d happened to Lena too! Should Kara bring her tea or soup or something? She knew where Lena lived, she’d been invited several times to pick her up or handle a meeting that Lena didn’t want to have in the office.

Kara wondered if Lena would like a cronut. She’d get some extras just in—

A heavy truck rumbled down the street and Kara had to clench her teeth to keep the pain at bay. She liked living in the city, but it was incredibly loud sometimes. It made her head feel like it was on too tight and if there was any more noise it’d pop. She groaned, clenched her teeth hard as she could to stop the pain.

The truck turned sideways, and horns blared as it did so. Of course they did. It seems traffic was bent on splitting Kara’s skull today. She turned to look. It was a heavy garbage truck, and it blocked the road.

Kara took a few steps towards the door. She diverged from the line, let people pass her.

If the trucks were going to back up, they’d just do it. They’d wave and honk and they might make rude gestures at each other, but they’d just move.

But what they’d done was block the road in front of LuxCorp, so that there were no cars that passed in front.

Kara left the shop, and jogged up the alley. If she could get a deserted corner, she could fly up to the rooftop and change. This might be nothing, it might be coincidence, but there were two big trucks blocking the road and signals going back and forth between them.

“Get ready,” She heard a voice say. Over all the car noise and the honking it was faint and she wasn’t sure she even heard it clearly—

A ramp fell with a resounding bang. Kara leapt into the air and hit the rooftop in her next stride. She changed at speed, still walking, left her stuff in a heap and then jumped into the air.

On the ground, she saw men spread out with missile launchers!

One fired before she rushed down, eyes alight with power, and she cut the rocket tubes apart with a single sweep. One streaked into the building before she could catch it and exploded.

People on the street screamed and debris started to fall.

Kara grabbed one of the attackers, and threw him into the other three. All four bowled up against the truck and fell hard to the ground. She rushed at the building to catch debris before it could hit the people. She lobbed it into the street, away from the running pedestrians.

Some of them were on the ground, immobile. Kara ran to the first, looked closely at her. She could see through the skin, saw the bones mostly intact. A fracture in the forearm, but that would heal.

Kara rolled her onto her back, and saw a gushing chest wound. Kara cringed, her stomach churned, and the woman moaned in pain. Kara saw blood, dark red and thick, pulse from the wounds in the chest.

She listened for an ambulance, it was too far away. Already, the woman’s heartbeat started to fade. Kara needed to stop the bleeding, and get her to help.

Kara had an idea. “I’m gonna take you to a hospital, okay?” Kara asked.

The woman just cried in pain.

Kara scooped her gently into her arms, and took off. She flew as smooth and as fast as she could manage. She flew up six blocks and turned the corner, saw the hospital. She landed in front of the emergency entrance, the automatic doors pulled back.

“Supergirl?” A nurse near the front desk asked. He laid a clipboard down and said, “We just got the call—“

“She’s got a bad chest wound,” Supergirl said. “She needs help.”

He rushed past the automatic doors that led back towards the interior of the hospital, grabbed an empty gurney just past the doors, and rushed it forward. Supergirl laid the injured woman down as soft as she could.

“Okay,” he said. “We got this.”

“Okay.” Kara rushed the automatic doors, groaned because they took so long to open, and then blitzed back towards the scene of the attack.

Immediately, she looked for more critically wounded people.

There was another man on the ground, holding his leg. He had a compound fracture, and a huge chunk of debris on his thigh. He cried out in agony.

Kara grabbed the rock and heaved it aside with little effort, and then looked at the leg. She didn’t think she could fly him to an ambulance without making the wound exponentially worse.

She could pull the leg straight and cauterize the wound so it’d stop bleeding though.

No, she didn’t want to risk using her heat vision that way.

“May I use your belt?” Kara asked. “I can make a tourniquet.”

He did, without protest, just groaned in pain. She tied it gently, and saw the blood start to slow when she synched it down. “Okay,” She said, “Stay still. You’re gonna be fine.”

“Thank you,” he cried.

She nodded, “That’s why I’m here.”

There were others with scrapes and bruises and some minor cuts but they were all off to the sides. There was only one other person inside, on their back, wounded. Kara rushed to them, looked down at their face, saw—

George Kirkland. Anger flared, but he also had some shrapnel in his—

He was fine. He wore a bullet proof vest, and none of the shrapnel had penetrated it.

“You’re not wounded,” She said, and stood off to one side of him.

“I am too!” He yelled, “I was here when those maniacs attacked! Where the hell is Luthor’s security?”

“Are you really calling the person with x-ray vision a liar?” She asked.

He met her eyes, and while he wanted to, didn’t.

“Get up,” She told him. “There are real people hurt and you’re nothing but a distraction if you stay like that.”

He glared up at her, and dragged himself to his feet. His face was ruddy and splotched red with exertion.

“Why are you wearing a bullet proof vest?” She asked.

“I’m a hated man, lady,” he snapped, and brushed himself off. “I’m cautious.”

“Uh-huh,” Kara did not believe him. “Did you have a meeting here?” She asked, and immediately regretted it. Kara Danvers would know he had a reason to be here, but Supergirl wouldn’t.

“A meeting with Luthor,” He glared at her. “Why do you ask?”

“Wondering if you need to check in with anyone so they know you’re not missing,” Supergirl said, stiff and haughty.

He pulled his phone from his pocket, and walked away.

Kara heard sirens approaching, and she moved back to the street. No one needed obvious help, the building seemed stable, no more debris fell. For the moment, everything seemed relatively calm. The police officers were still a few blocks away, but they were getting closer. On the rooftop where she’d left her purse and clothes, her phone rang. It could go to voicemail.

One of the men she’d knocked out began to stir.

She walked over to him. She stooped, grabbed one the men by the lapels, and flew straight up with him. He screamed for a moment and the noise faded as he lost his air and passed out briefly.

She hovered around two thousand feet, high above LuxCorp tower. He came too gradually.

When he woke up, he looked around, realized his predicament, and started to flail. Her grip remained unbreakable. He tried anyway.

“What was the purpose of that?” Kara asked.

“Screw you, lady,” he wriggled and tried to get out of her grip.

“Really?” She asked. “I could drop you. You know that, right? And you don’t have a parachute.”

There was something in the way she said it, so casual and off-handed, that made him pause.

She would drop him. She’d catch him though, too. But she learned from Alex, sometimes an implicit threat is a more useful one.

“Hey,” he shook his head, “Look, I’m just paid for demolition, okay? They put cash on the barrel, and tell me to hit the building with a couple of rockets, and haul ass outta there.”

It didn’t sound very solid, as far as plans were concerned. Considering how easily she stopped them.

She said as much.

“Lady, you ain’t ever seen the kind of money that I was offered for this. Even if I was caught, they promised they’d take care of my family.”

She considered. “Who’s they?”

“Dunno. I was hired through email, if you can believe that.”

“You got a phone?” she asked.

“Sure.” He pulled it from his pocket, and then dropped it. “Whoops.” He said, but didn’t mean it.

She sighed. And dropped him.

He screamed, she raced down, caught the phone and stuffed it into the top of her boots, and then caught him. He didn’t stop screaming until she put him back on the ground. And even then, he kept at it. None of his other three companions were regaining consciousness.

She drifted up to the rooftop to get her own phone.

Two missed calls from Alex, one from J’onn, one from Maggie, and one from Lena—

Why Lena?

The sirens were on the street now. Kara looked down, saw police cars start clearing traffic so they could get to the scene. Beyond that, she spotted the black DEO SUVs. Alex climbed out of the front seat of one and headed towards the front of LuxCorp.

Kara slipped her phone into the top of her boots, and floated to the ground. Alex spotted her, and came to a stop in front of her sister.

“What happened?”

“Four men jumped out of these garbage trucks and attacked LuxCorp with rocket launchers,” Kara gestured to the shredded tubes in the street. The four men were still in a pile.

“It doesn’t look like many people were hurt.”

“Some injuries. I flew one directly to a hospital.” Kara said. “I thought it was faster.”

“Probably was.” Alex hedged. “Why attack this place, though?

Kara had no idea.

“Well,” Alex said. “We’ll get these guys into custody. And interrogate them.”

“They said they were paid to attack the place. Just, show up and start shooting.”

“That’s ballsy for National City,” Alex said. “Gotham, yeah, I could get that. But here?”

“I know,” Kara shrugged. “It doesn’t make sense to me.”

“We’ll figure it out.” Alex nudged Kara. “Are you okay?”

“Sure,” Kara nodded. Marginally. “I’m not sure we should talk about it in the open like this.”

“Fair enough. It’ll take a few hours to wrap up paperwork on this one. But I can meet you at your place again, if you like?”

“I’d appreciate that,” Kara said.

“Supergirl!” Lena Luthor said behind Kara. Kara whipped around, her cape twisted, and slapped her in the face. She shooed it aside.

“Ms. Luthor,” Kara said. “Are you alright?”

Lena met Kara’s eyes for a moment, and then shook her head briefly, “I’m fine. I was on my way in when I heard what happened. Is everyone okay?”

“Some injuries.” Kara shrugged. “But they’re on their way to hospitals so I think they’ll be okay?”

“That’s a relief,” Lena said. “What happened?”

“These men attacked your building,” Kara gestured from the downed men that the DEO were processing, to the broken marquis sign on the front of the building.

“I mean,” Lena shook her head. “I’ve been meaning to replace that anyway but this is not how I envisioned getting around to that.”

Kara couldn’t help herself. She smiled.

“Supergirl, are you busy?” Lena asked.

“Not particularly.” Kara said. “Unless you need me, Agent Danvers?” She looked at her sister.

“Nah, we got this.” Alex looked back and forth between Kara and Lena, gave Kara a raised eyebrow, and then walked towards the men who’d attacked LuxCorp.

“Can we talk privately? Maybe in my office?”

“Certainly,” Kara said. “Do you want a lift up there?”

Lena blanched. “Um. If you want to? I should think the elevators work.”

Kara looked into the building. The elevators were stopped in their shafts. That wasn’t particularly difficult to see with her vision. She said so to Lena.

“Are you sure?” Lena gave her a sideways glance. “And you’re not just saying that so you can sweep me off my feet into the sunset or something?”

Kara blushed furiously and tried to think of something snarky to say but she could find no words. Her mind had stopped functioning properly.

“I apologize,” Lena said. “I like seeing you blush.”

“You’re mean,” Kara said. “You weren’t this mean last night.”

“So I’ve been told.” Lena did not look ashamed. “Do I get any dignity when you pick me up?”

“I’m not gonna just hoist you over my shoulder,” Kara said.

“If you’re gentle with me, I accept,” Lena gave a little smile and Kara felt herself do more than blush.

She carefully reached for Lena, scooped her into her arms and carried her, bridal style, as she lifted off the ground. She didn’t accelerate hard, and as she took off, Lena gasped and clutched her arms around Kara’s neck. Kara held on tight, and did not let Lena down.

She was gentle as she flew, she did not accelerate suddenly or turn unexpectedly. In no time, they at the helicopter pad on the top of LuxCorp.

“If my office had a balcony, this would be so much easier,” Lena said.

“I’m sure that’s an addition you can make easily,” Kara said.

“Certainly. When things get settled, I’ll have my secretary organize the work crews. She’s brilliant. You should meet her! Kara Danvers. Sweet girl.”

“I met her,” Kara said. “She interviewed me at CatCo.” She hated talking about herself in the third person.

“That’s right!” Lena smiled at Supergirl. “I forgot.”

“I doubt that, Ms. Luthor.” Kara said.

Lena did the little squint she did when she was processing information. Kara kicked herself. How was she supposed to address Lena right now? Supergirl didn’t know Lena personally, and calling her by her first name wasn’t something Kara felt comfortable doing.

“Supergirl, I’d like to apologize for last night.”

“For what?” Kara asked.

“I was incredibly brash to you. And rude. And it was inexcusable.” Lena met Kara’s eyes with total focus and spoke the words with absolute concentration. Her heartbeat was fast, but Kara figured that was more because of the flight than deception.

Kara felt herself relax. Either Lena was an unparalleled liar, or she meant it.

“I appreciate that,” Kara said. “And I’m sorry for being so snippy at you. I had a bad night.”

“Rough patrol?” Lena asked, her expression open and curious and sincere and Kara found herself confessing without really thinking about it.

“No. I mean. Kinda? I heard this little girl crying. And I flew to her, and found out her dad was being abusive because she hadn’t cooked the meal well. He hadn’t hit her, but she was heartbroken anyway. And I didn’t know what to do to help her.”

“I understand,” Lena said. “I do.”

“Like?” Kara wrapped her arms around herself and started to pace, slowly, “If someone’s getting hit, I can teach them to block. Or deflect, or even fight back. If someone’s scared of something, I can help them confront their fears.” She faced Lena. “But I don’t know how to help a little girl being hurt by her own family.”

“There’s not much you can do. Not for them, or to the abuser. Because whatever you do to them will come back on the child.”

“I know that! But I don’t accept it!”

“Supergirl,” Lena took a step towards Kara. “You have strength that no human can fathom. And abilities that we can’t imagine. And your heart is your greatest asset, I should think. But it’s incredibly human of you to think that you can carry this weight.”

“It’s my responsibility. I’m the hope-bringer, aren’t I? I’m the one who’s supposed to help everyone.” She tugged on the front of her uniform, drew attention to her family crest. “This has to mean something, doesn’t it? Hope, right?”

“You’re not Atlas,” Lena started to reach out, but hesitated.

“You’re fine,” Kara said.

“May I put my hand on your arm? You seem like you could use some comfort.”

“Maybe I could.” Kara slumped. Lena hesitated, and then touched Kara’s upper arm.

“You can’t fight people’s battles for them. No one on earth can.”

“I don’t accept that.”

“Supergirl,” Lena said. “I came from an abusive family. Some knew what I was going through. Most didn’t. The only thing I wish I’d had when I was suffering, was someone to talk to. We escape when we find the courage to do so. But what I really wish I’d had? Was a friend I could just be around once in a while. Not someone pressuring me to leave, not someone trying to take me away, not someone trying to get me to fight back. Just a friend.”

Kara listened, floored by Lena’s confession.

“If you see the girl again, just be a friend to her. Ask her about her day. What she likes to read, if that’s even an option. Just be there for her. She knows what she needs to do. But if you put the pressure of fighting back on her, she’ll burn herself out and blame herself for it.”

“What?” Kara whispered.

“Think about it,” Lena withdrew her hand. “Supergirl wants her to fight back. You’re an inspiration to so many people. Supergirl told that little girl to fight back. Stand up for herself. And she’s gonna try because of her faith in Supergirl. And when it doesn’t work, she’s not gonna blame her dad or her inexperience, she’s gonna blame herself because she feels like she let you down.”

Kara put her hands over her mouth, her eyes wide with the weight of that realization. She felt tears well up and start to trickle down. How could she be so unaware?

She went over her conversation last night with Renee. Had she told her to fight back?

Not explicitly. She told Renee that she didn’t have to save her father.

Would Renee interpret that as an instruction to fight back?

Kara turned away. Took a few steps, and then froze. “Um. Okay this is weird to ask. But. Will you be around later? After I go see Renee again. Maybe? I’m sorry to ask, I know how busy you are.” Kara blanched. “Never mind. Thank you for your help! I mean that.” Kara gestured away. She had no idea what to say to Lena, how to wrap this up, how to leave properly, how to not leave Lena in a lurch.

“No, it’s fine. You can stop by my office anytime.”

“Thank you.” Kara turned, and blasted away.

 

#

 

Kara found the apartment without any trouble. She also found the police officers inside, two squad cars downstairs, and three officers in the apartment.

Supergirl went into the building from the ground floor, raced up to the apartment’s level. A fourth officer stood in the hallway, away from the apartment itself, talking to the mother. The officer, Rodriquez, looked over the mother’s head and waved at Supergirl. “Did you need something, ma’am?”

“What happened?” Kara asked.

“Little girl ran away,” Rodriquez said.

“Any idea where she went?” Kara asked. The mother turned.

“You!” She screamed. “You did this to us!”

Kara recoiled, took a step back. Rodriquez reached for the woman but she shook out of his grasp. “If you hadn’t put stupid ideas in her head, she’d still be home!”

“What happened?” Kara asked.

“She ran away! You told her he hated her and she ran away from us!” she screamed.

The father rushed out into the hallway, saw Kara, and screamed, “Where is my daughter?”

“I don’t know!” Kara backed up another step, but he rushed her anyway. She watched him swing at her, like this was some kind of slow motion nightmare, and she moved her head to the side to avoid the hit. He stumbled, fell on his side, his wife stopped next to him, and Kara backed further up.

A few of the other tenants opened their doors and peered into the hallway to see what the commotion was.

“You drove her away from us!” he yelled, and tried to get to her feet.

Kara turned and ran. She blitzed the front door and exploded into the sky. One mile up, two she went, and froze.

She couldn’t catch her breath, her hands wouldn’t stop shaking. She clenched them together and held them close to her chest. She tried to breathe, slowly, and deeply.

It didn’t help calm her much. Her hands still shook. But at least she had some of her focus back.

She had to make this right. She had to find Renee.

Kara drifted down back towards the building. She was two blocks away and unlikely to be spotted from the building itself. But she could see into Renee’s room. Maybe that’d offer some clue as to where she’d run off too.

Renee’s room was full of posters and books and a big bed with a pink and blue bed-spread and plushie dolphins arranged on the edge of the bed. The posters were of Kara and her cousin, Clark.

There were a _lot_ of posters.

Well that’s a place to start.

Kara rushed across the city. It wasn’t but a couple of miles, and she slowed to a hover over the monument.

About a year after Kara went public in her efforts to protect National City, and after she’d saved the President of the United States, Mayor Hawking commissioned a monument for Kara. It showed Supergirl, floating in the air, cape billowed out behind her, offering her hand to the city below. It was rendered in marble, and was beautiful.

Kara blushed stupidly when it’d been unveiled. She had no idea what to say about it, either, since it was literally a statue built in her honor. She said she’d try to live up to that faith.

It clicked for her, and she lowered herself to the ground.

Renee stood in front of the monument, a blue pink backpack with Kara’s Kryptonian family sigil on the back.

Renee’s eyes were damp, and she stared up at the statue.

“Renee?” Kara asked. She stood beside her.

Renee looked up at Kara, and then down at her feet. “I’m sorry,” Renee said.

“No, honey, you’re okay,” Kara knelt next to Renee and spoke at her level. “I made a mistake last night.”

“You shouldn’t have come.” Renee guessed.

“No, that’s not what was wrong. I did it badly, but I don’t think it was a mistake to talk to you.”

“My parents are afraid of you.” Renee still wouldn’t look at her.

“I know,” Kara said. “I don’t know how to ease their fears.”

“But they let me have posters of you,” Renee said. “You look so cool when you fly.”

“It feels cool to fly,” Kara said.

Renee smiled, and sniffed.

“Hey,” Kara tipped the girl’s chin gently up. “You’re gonna be okay. I promise.”

“I don’t know what to do.” Renee said, and her eyes welled up again.

Kara pulled the girl into an embrace, and she sobbed quietly into Kara’s neck. Kara closed her eyes hard and tried to keep it together.

These were the hardest moments. Not lifting entire stations into space, this instant.

Because so much hinged on Kara getting it right. Saying the right thing. Doing the right thing. And Kara didn’t know if she would or not.

Good intentions don’t count for much when people’s emotional future depends on the wisdom she offers.

It took a long moment for Renee to calm down. Kara held her tight.

Renee finally pulled back and sniffed. Kara didn’t have anything to wipe the girl’s face with. She looked around, saw a hotdog vender on the corner. “Hang on, okay?”

“Okay.”

Kara jumped across the street. “Hi, can I grab some napkins please?”

The old man looked at her with wide eyes. “You want anything else?”

The hotdogs smelled incredibly good and Kara’s mouth immediately started watering. “Yeah, six loaded polish dogs. I’ll be back for them in a moment.”

“Sure thing Supergirl.” He set to it.

She turned, looked back at Renee, and then added, “And one plain hotdog.”

“Okay.” It didn’t faze him.

She jumped back across the street and with the napkins, gently wiped Renee’s nose and dried her eyes.

“Okay,” Kara said. “So here’s the truth of it. Your situation is bigger than either me or you can handle. There’s no one answer that solves it.”

Renee nodded, and didn’t say anything. She didn’t seem surprised.

“If you want to talk? I’m here. If you just want to go for a flight, I’m here. Okay?”

“I don’t know how to call you.” Renee said. “How will you know I need you?”

Kara had a flash of memory from when she was a kid. She’d slip out of her and Alex’s shared room to go flying in the middle of the night. And Alex had a whistle. A dog whistle. Their parents couldn’t hear it, but Kara could. And when Alex whistled, Kara knew to rush home and get back into bed.

It was a good thing they didn’t have dogs. Otherwise their barking would betray the use of the whistle.

“I’ll leave you a gift on your balcony. Okay? It’ll be a special whistle. Only for you.”

“You promise?”

“I promise.”

“Want a hot dog?” Kara asked.

Renee nodded.

“Here, hang onto me.” Kara drew Renee close to her, Renee put her arms around Kara’s neck, and Kara jumped across the street.

When she set Renee down, she was smiling and giggling. “That was cool.”

“Yeah? Maybe I’ll take you flying some time. If your parents ever approve.”

Renee’s face fell, and Kara knew it was the wrong thing to say. She also knew that she didn’t want her parents to accuse Kara of kidnapping. So there’s that.

“Would you like anything on your hot dog?” Kara asked.

“Mustard, please.” She said.

The older man put mustard on the hot dog and handed it down, “For the little hero.”

Renee beamed as she took the hot dog, “Thank you.” She said. She started to eat.

“And for the big hero,” He smiled at her, and offered two paper plates full of thick polish dogs.

“Oh yum,” Kara licked her lips. “What do I owe you?”

“Not a penny,” he said. “Seeing you care about this city is payment enough.”

Kara blushed. “I’m grateful to you for this.” She said.

He waved it away. “No worries.”

She walked away with Renee, and they ate their food. Renee worked through the one hotdog and Kara through six exponentially larger ones, but they finished about the same time. Both threw their trash into a can, and Kara said, “Your parents are worried about you.”

“I’m sorry.” Renee looked at her feet and kicked at a rock.

“Climb on my back. I’ll get you home.”

“Shouldn’t you wait fifteen minutes before you fly after eating?”

Kara smiled so big she wondered if she’d break her cheeks, but Kara shook her head. “Special Kryptonian digestion. Don’t gotta wait to fly.”

She opted not to tell Renee about all the times she’d fallen out of the sky and thrown up in the crater she’d made when she crashed because she flew too hard on an over-full, stomach.

It’s just not a fun story to share to a tired and scared little girl.

Kara knelt in front of Renee, and the girl put her arms around her neck, and her legs around Kara’s waist. Kara held onto her, and lifted gently into the sky. “Here we go!”

The girl squeaked in excitement, and Kara flew above the buildings. She didn’t push, didn’t go fast, just ambled along.

Renee wasn’t scared. She pointed at everything below and said, “It’s so small already!”

“I know,” Kara said. “I see so much when I fly high.”

“You do?”

“I see everything.”

“I wish I could do that.”

Kara said nothing. She flew Renee home, and landed up the block.

Once they were back on the ground, Renee was breathless and she beamed up at Supergirl. “Thank you,” She said.

“You’re very welcome. You should go back to your parents.”

“I will,” Renee turned and took a few steps away before she whipped around again and asked, “You won’t forget about me, will you?”

“Not a chance,” Kara said.

Renee relaxed, the worry in her face faded away, and she walked home, calm and quiet.

Kara waited until she got into her building. She listened. A moment later, she heard Renee’s mother scream her name, and then start crying. Kara looked up at their apartment.

Her mother hugged Renee tight to her, and her father knelt next to them both, and hugged the three of them.

It wasn’t a solution. It wasn’t permanent. But it was alright for the moment.

She pulled her phone from her boot, and searched for pet supply stores nearby. She found one, a mile south, and flew to it.

Outside, she braced herself.

“Do not adopt all the animals. Do not adopt all the animals.” She whispered the mantra as she marched into the store. She pushed the door open.

A tired voice said, “Hi, welcome to PetCo. What can I help you find?” he seemed utterly unbothered by the presence of Supergirl.

“A dog whistle. Please.” Kara said. She heard puppies yipping and barking on the left wall and she clenched her teeth.

Do not adopt all the animals. Do not adopt all the animals.

“Aisle four,” The young man looked back at his book. She walked down the aisle, spotted the whistles on a set of racks near the back. She grabbed one, returned to the register.

“How much?” She asked.

“Nineteen ninety nine.” He said.

She pulled her wallet from her other boot, and paid him with a twenty. He gave her the penny, but she put it in the little tray that said ‘leave a penny, take a penny.’

“You want a bag with that?” he asked.

“No, thank you.” She said. He handed her the whistle, and she left.

She opened the package while she flew just to make sure it’d be easy for Renee to get into. She carefully slipped over to her balcony, and laid it underneath Renee’s window. She and her family were still in the kitchen. There was no anger.

Kara flew away, exhausted. And she still needed to go to work now. Because Lena was in the office.

Kara groaned as she flew back towards LuxCorp.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Next time: Lena pines actively for Supergirl, and thinks about putting in a balcony.


	8. Lena's Machinations

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Lena Luthor struggles to rename her company, and keep her composure around Kara, who's being extra adorable today and it's just not fair.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> If you liked this please leave a comment and kudos! 
> 
> follow me @thejollywriter on Tumblr!

Lena Luthor found it utterly impossible to focus on her work. Getting the construction crew organized was easy. The facilities manager met her in her office once she’d descended from the roof, and the work-order to get a balcony installed was surprisingly easy. They could drill into the foundation on the sides of the windows she chose, and weld heavy-duty rebar casings into place, then fit pre-fab concrete. It’ll stand up to building code, and be done by tomorrow morning, if she didn’t mind the racket.

She didn’t. The hard part, according to him, was the crane. But he said it was manageable. So she told him to get it done, whatever it took, and he agreed.

Fixing the marquis, however, would be a little more involved. There was some minor structural damage, and the issue of replacing the name of the building itself.

Perhaps this was a blessing in disguise. She now had an opportunity to fully and completely rebrand the company.

A new name. A real, new, identity. No more LuxCorp.

What to call it though?

The door to her outer office opened, and Kara Danvers stepped through. Lena spotted her through the thin, clear pane of glass next to her actual office door. Kara’s hair was frizzy and she looked flushed, tired, and still managed to look put together.

Lena wondered if that really was Supergirl. Her hair was up, tied into a simple bun that kept it all off her shoulders, and her glasses hid the frame of those sharp cheekbones.

Lena had an idea about figuring out if it really was Supergirl, but she put it on hold for the moment. She didn’t want to out Supergirl yet. She wanted to earn the trust for Supergirl to come to her, and connect the dots between Kara, and Supergirl.

In the mean-time, Lena wondered how easy it was for others to connect those dots, and if there was anything she could do to make it harder.

The mayor had an incredibly salient point. Protecting Kara Danvers’ anonymity as Supergirl was as important a responsibility as Supergirl protecting National City.

“Oh Kara?” Lena asked into her intercom. “May I borrow you for a moment?”

“Certainly,” Kara said back, and came in a moment later, carrying a notepad and a pen. “Was there something you needed?”

“I wanted to brainstorm something and I’d like your help.”

“I’ll do what I can,” Kara said.

“I want to change the name of the company. I need to replace the sign, anyway, and I don’t want to hang anything similar to my name on the front.”

“I can understand that,” Kara said.

“Do you have any ideas?”

Kara froze, eyes glazed over, and she said, “Um.”

Lena smiled, “Me neither.”

Kara relaxed a little bit. “Oh! I brought you something!” She said, and rushed from Lena’s office. Lena stood up as Kara came back in, a white paper bag in hand. She handed it over to Lena.

“What’s this?” Lena couldn’t stop herself smiling.

“Cronuts.” Kara said. “I didn’t know what kind you liked. So. Um. I got a bunch.”

The bag was heavy, and when Lena opened it up, she indeed saw cronuts in a variety of flavors. Some were glazed, some weren’t, and somewhere in there were sprinkled things.

“That’s really sweet,” Lena grinned at Kara. “Thank you.”

“I wanted to get you something to cheer you up,” Kara said. “Since you said you were sick.”

Lena looked up from the bag, and saw Kara’s eyebrow go down again. Kara’s face was perfectly arranged, and if it weren’t for that brief moment where Lena saw her suppress the inquisitive brow, Lena would’ve thought Kara totally meant it.

Lena knew, to her core, that Kara was Supergirl.

“Sometimes I forget how tired I am,” Lena said. “So it feels like I’m sick.”

“You had a long night?” Kara asked, and this time the eyebrow couldn’t stay in place, but Kara looked away and tried to compose herself.

_Oh you little punk_ , Lena thought. _I am going to_ get _you._

“Yeah,” Lena sat down, the bag between them, “This Kirkland thing is getting to me.”

“He wanted an audience,” Kara said. “He’s waiting in the lobby.”

“Let him sit,” Lena waved it off. “He’s an ass.”

“Do you think he had anything to do with the attack?”

“I wouldn’t put it past him but I have no way to tie him to it,” Lena said.

A brief silence lapsed between them. “Anyway.” Lena shrugged, pulled a pastry out of the bag at random. It was a traditionally glazed cronut, and she took a bite of it. While she chewed, she said, “It cannot be this difficult to figure out what to call my freaking company.”

She pushed the bag towards Kara, “Please, have some of these. I cannot eat them all by myself but I’ll try and then hate myself for three days.”

Kara grinned, and took one out of the bag.

“I don’t know,” Kara said. “Do you want to totally rebrand it? Or just modify the name you already had?”

“If I could get away with rebranding it, I would. But frankly I’d get roasted in the press and I’d have to devote some time and effort to dealing with it. And I don’t want to spare that energy. And,” Lena gestured with the Cronut, “Kirkland will use it to stir up the board members. Like I’m trying to do radical shit with the company and endanger their quarterly payouts. It ain’t worth it, Kara.”

“I understand that.”

“So it’s just modifying what I already had.”

“Okay.” Kara considered while she munched on her cronut. It was glazed with chocolate icing and had rainbow sprinkles. “What about calling it LenCorp.”

“What, after Lena?” Lena asked.

“Sure,” Kara said. “It was already LuxCorp. I heard that your father was called Lux.”

“Yeah. For all his power, he was never very imaginative. He imagined his name was a brand. There’d be Lux Computers, and Lux Cars, and Lux Electronics, blah, blah, blah. So. LuxCorp it was.”

Lena wiped her fingers off on a napkin she’d gotten from the bag and sighed. “I honestly kind of liked that my name wasn’t on it. They call me a Luthor, but it doesn’t feel like I am one. So. I get to come to work, like an employee. I don’t know how it’d feel to be the name on the marquis, and still work here.”

Kara’s eyes were soft and when Lena looked up, she couldn’t read the emotion Kara had for her.

“Yeah,” Kara said, voice quiet, “I get that.”

Whatever compassion and moment they had was ruined because Lena was absolutely derailed by; a small crumb of chocolate icing lodged on the edge of Kara’s mouth.

A vision raced through Lena’s mind. She’d get up, saunter over to Kara, and tell her she’s got something on her face. She’d say, “Let me get that for you.” Kara would nod, say, “Okay.” Lena would bend down, and kiss the edge of Kara’s mouth, get the icing, and then Lena would lick her lips as she pulled back. Which would leave Kara properly stunned.

What Lena _did_ do was say, “You have something on the side of your mouth,” And offer some napkins.

“Oh!” Kara said, and took them. She swiped both sides, got the icing, and Lena looked away.

Her brain had run away from her like it’d been chased by a werewolf. And despite the deliberate efforts Lena made to focus, her mind followed through that little fantasy.

“Are you alright?” Kara asked.

Not even kind of, “Sure,” Lena said. “Just distracted.”

“You seemed lost in thought.”

“I am,” Lena said, without hesitation. She wondered if Kara could read minds.

Lena flushed, embarrassed by her own thoughts.

_Get a grip!_

“What about L-Corp?” Kara asked.

“Huh?” Lena looked up, blinked, and focused on Kara. Which did nothing to help her regain composure. Because Kara was so earnest and helpful and she just tried so hard and Lena wanted to scoop her up and hug her.

“L-Corp. Luthor Corp, but abbreviated. Not drastically different. You still come to work in the morning. It’s your sorta name on the tower. And it’s not LuxCorp.”

Lena considered. “It can work.” She said.

Kara beamed.

“Thank you,” Lena said. “I appreciate that.”

“Anytime.” Kara stood. “Is there anything else, Ms. Luthor?”

“That’ll be all for now, Ms. Danvers.”

Once the opaque office door was closed, Lena thumped her head down on the desk.

_Goddammit woman you have it bad_ , she scolded herself.

She looked at the clock. Three P.M. Lena couldn’t tell if it was her stress that made the deadline loom faster and larger, or if this day had been that exciting.

She stood up, packed her purse, and left her office. Outside, Kara stood up, “Did you need something?”

“I’m headed home. I think I’ll try for some rest and just start fresh tomorrow, sorting out everything.”

“Certainly, Ms. Luthor. Is there anything I can do?”

“Yeah. Go do something fun, for you.” Lena said.

“As you wish,” Kara nodded to her.

Lena smiled at Kara, and went to the elevator. Once the doors were closed, she allowed herself a moment to blush furiously.

How dare Kara reference her favorite movie? She wondered if Kara’d done it deliberately. She probably had.

The punk.

 

#

 

Most of L-Corp’s R&D takes place on the middle thirty floors of the tower. Since so much of their income comes from patenting and marketing products that people need, research and development plays a critical role in the existence of the company.

And, everything that gets created gets catalogued and stored somewhere.

At the bottom of L-Corp tower, is an archive of sorts. All the inventions, every blueprint, every knick-knack invented by a whizz-kid engineer upstairs, gets stored down there.

The elevator doors opened to reveal a white, well-polished floor of a synthetic tile surface. It was smooth to walk on. Ahead of her, was a caged off desk, a ten-by-ten gate to the right, and a pedestrian gate to the left. The cage extended back towards the elevator so anyone who disembarked could not force their way into the storage area.

Behind the desk was a plump woman with fluffy red hair and bright green eyes.

“Hello!” She said. “What can I do for you?”

“Are you the archive manager?” Lena asked. She hadn’t been down here since she got back to National City, but the last time she had, a man worked here.

“That I am, Ms. Luthor.” The woman closed her book. “Cynthia Davies. At your service.” she tapped a little placard on the desk that showed her name. “What can I do for you?”

“Actually, I was hoping to look at the archive list from Lex’s estates.”

“Ah,” She said. “There isn’t a list.”

Lena stopped cold. “What do you mean? Everything we keep here is catalogued.”

“You are, Lena Luthor, right?”

“Of course I am.” Lena stood a little stiff.

Cynthia reached down, Lena braced in case she pulled a gun, she chided herself for being paranoid, but then Cynthia lifted a flat tablet connected to a computer by a thick cable. “Then you wouldn’t mind plopping your hand down there, would you?”

It was dusty and looked dirty and Lena wondered if she had enough hand sanitizer but she did as Cynthia suggested.

The scanner activated, pricked her finger, and Lena recoiled.

There was a positive beep from the machine. Her hand made no dent in the dust or grime, and when she rubbed at her pricked fingers, realized it wasn’t dust at all. It just looked that way.

“Right then. This way, if you please.” Cynthia said. She pushed a buzzer, and the pedestrian gate popped open.

Lena, confused but curious, followed Cynthia as she walked away.

Immediately beyond the gate were fifty-foot tall stacks of archived inventions. The aisles were mostly narrow, except for the central four, which were fifteen feet wide.

Some of the inventions came down on forklifts.

Cynthia led Lena down the middle aisle, to the back wall. At the back wall was a set of double doors. Cynthia put her hand on a palm-reader and put her eye up to a retinal scanner, and then the doors unlocked.

“Where are we going?” Lena asked.

“It’s complicated.” Cynthia said. “See, when Lex got carted off by Super- and Bat-man, a lot of work went into inventorying Lex’s stuff. Including his personal labs.”

“Yeah,” Lena looked around as they moved through the narrow hallway. It looked like a junction room, with huge pipes on the sides. “I helped with that.”

“Some of these lists are yours, I imagine then,” She said. “Sorry for the runaround. It’s a security thing.”

Lena didn’t need to ask why.

Another door, and now they reached the private archives. This door took the same number of security measures, but included a keypad with a pin-number. Only there were no numbers visible on the pad, and no edges to the keys. Lena had no idea how to memorize the sequence.

Through that door, into a dusty room with wide, squat shelves on all sides. The cases were clear in most instances, and mostly full of the personal tinkerings of Lex Luthor.

“So there’s no catalogue,” Lena said in the doorway, next to Cynthia. “How do I find anything?”

“You ask me.” Cynthia made an expansive gesture. “I’ll hook you up.”

“Okay,” Lena drew the word out. “Can I ask for general directions and then go off wandering by myself?”

“Technically? Probably. But no.”

“Why not?”

“Because federal agents are scarier than you are, and the people aware of this inventory don’t belong to an alphabet agency.”

“Ah,” Lena drew the word out. “I get that.”

“What are you after, anyway?”

Lena sighed. “I’m not sure if it’s crazier to just ask for what I want, or explain why I want it?”

“Ma’am, I’m from Gotham. You’re not gonna surprise me.”

Lena decided to go for it, “Okay. There should be a suit of body armor found during the raid. Small, custom made, with a mask and everything, that doesn’t appear to fit someone of Lex’s dimensions.”

“Ah yeah. A prototype of some sort. Written off as unusable.”

“Well. I’d like to tinker with it.”

Cynthia nodded. “You would, would you?”

“I would.”

“Well. I figure two things. One, if no one asks me about it, no one knows it’s missing. And two, if you return it in the morning, that oughta work.”

Lena nodded, “Well. I’d appreciate that. Second, is there another way out of here?”

“A subtler way?” Cynthia guessed.

Lena didn’t know how to respond.

“Sure is,” Cynthia shrugged. “What else you need?”

“There were a bunch of specialized arrows in his workshop.”

“Those aren’t hard to find,” Cynthia gestured to the far wall. “I didn’t know Lex was into archery.”

“He wasn’t,” Lena said, but failed to add, _I didn’t have my own workshop then and Lex let me use a shitty little bench in one corner._

“Oh-kay,” Cynthia drew the word out. “This way.”

She led Lena through the stacks of gear and sundry equipment to a case at the back locked with four industrial-sized locks. Cynthia opened the case. Inside was the quiver of arrows tucked into one corner, and Lena’s suit of armor laid out neat and clean.

She trembled. This was a bat-shit crazy idea.

And she was excited.

“I’ll bring it back in good shape. I promise.” Lena said.

“Not my concern,” Cynthia said. “So long as it’s back here.”

“Okay. Can you show me that easy way out?”

“Sure,” Cynthia waited while Lena took the armor, slung it over one shoulder, and carried the quiver of arrows in her other hand.

The armor was heavier than she remembered.

 

#

 

It was so much more awkward to sneak it upstairs to her penthouse than she’d realized upon picking it up. The armor was flexible enough when she wore it, but it didn’t exactly fold down into a covert pile of something. It was big and lumpy and had sharp edges. And the quiver of arrows was just hopeless to hide. At least, from where the limousine stopped in the garage basement, she could take a private elevator up to the top floor.

In fairness, her driver didn’t give her any attitude about the oddity of her package.

It was not the strangest thing she’d smuggled home in the middle of the night.

Once she got into her penthouse, she went directly to the secret half, unlocked it, and laid the armor out. Now the real test. Did she still fit in it?

She stripped, changed into a soft cotton T-shirt, and shorts. There wasn’t a lot of spare room under the armor, and she just didn’t want to chafe.

She stood at the feet of her armor, looked at the suit, and wondered if a shower was in order.

No. Not yet. She had six hours until her deadline. And she wanted to make sure the thing fit and she could function before she got cleaned up for her night on the town.

She stepped into it. The armor was well-tailored and came together as a kind of one-piece suit. Except for the boots. The boots were separate. And for those she’d just used a pair of store-bought steel-toed boots.

It was tight at the waist, and in her shoulders, but it fit well elsewhere. She zipped it up, and stretched. No restriction in movement, she didn’t feel chafing yet. She put her boots on, and walked around her training floor for a moment to get used to it.

It was heavier than she remembered it being. She paced back and forth in her training room, swinging her arms and limbering up.

On her second lap she realized she wasn’t stretching, she was stalling.

“Fuck it,” She sighed.

She went to one end of her training room, and then did wind-sprints, back and forth, until her breath came in ragged gasps.

Yeah, the suit was heavier than she remembered. But familiar.

She took a minute to catch her breath, and then flipped a switch near the door. From the walls and down from the ceiling, metal bars extended to be caught, swung from, and vaulted over.

Lena took a few breaths to calm herself, and then tried to run the course.

She jumped at the first bar, her hands slipped and she landed flat on her face.

This was a stupid idea.

She curled into a loose fetal position to catch her breath, and tried to figure out if this was actually as stupid as it felt. Or if she was just that rusty.

What was she trying to prove? Infiltrating her brother’s facility (he hadn’t minded her working on stuff until she tried to call him out on his anti-Super obsession and he banned her) was one thing. The half dozen other times she’d used a bow to get even for some reason (like for her college roommate who was assaulted and the college did nothing to prosecute the guy) was also different.

Infiltrating a heavily guarded compound to annihilate a snitch was an entirely different ballgame.

Technically.

Wasn’t it?

Lena worked through the steps. There was certainly a similar pattern. It was about not being spotted, whittling down security as she could so that when she cornered the snitch, all she had to worry about was the man himself.

Lena drew herself to her feet. Walked to the end of the room. Frankly, one small electromagnetic disruptor on the external lights, and she could easily get in on the second floor. Evade the whole of the security on the ground floor, take out the guys upstairs, and that’s that.

Lena paused. It was manageable.

She turned back to the course. She hunkered down, wiped her hands off, and then sprinted at the first bar. She leapt into the air, caught it, swung her legs forward and used her momentum to carry her up to the second platform, ten feet off the ground.

She mantled up onto that, sprinted down it, and dove bodily at the next bar. She caught it with both hands, swung herself at the next one.

It was a pole mounted sideways on the wall, like a drainage pipe. She caught it, mantled past it, and leapt at the final bar. She caught it, and dropped. She landed on both feet, rolled off her momentum, and came up in a crouch, at the far end of the room.

She could do this.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Next Time: Lena makes her run, and Supergirl crashes the party.


	9. Lena's Revelation

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Lena finally makes her assault on the snitch's compound, and encounters an unexpected barrier in Supergirl. Things get worse when she makes a revelation to Supergirl.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I know the beginning is a cliche but it made me laugh in this context. 
> 
> Follow me @thejollywriter on Tumblr!

It was a dark and stormy night, which irritated Lena because she hadn’t practiced her parkour course with wet hands or slippery boots.

She stood under the cover of an awning to the north of Battersea Imports. And by awning, it was really just a torn piece of plastic stretched over a frame. But it was drier than being out in the rain.

She had her bow in her hands, and she idly tugged at the string. Rain water filtered down the front of her mask. It was armored, designed to protect her cheeks and eyes, not unlike batman’s cowl, but without the drama.

And the ears.

“Fuck it,” She reached into her quiver, small sensors in her gloves detected the RFID tags in the shafts of the arrow, and in a digital voice that spoke quietly into Lena’s right ear, she heard, “EMP.”

She fished it from the quiver, knocked it, and drew back. She aimed a little above the light post thirty-yards away from her, and fired.

The arrow flew true, smacked against the base of the pole, and for fifty yards around, everything went dark. There was no moon, and no lights reflected from across the bay.

She sprinted into the darkness, her legs strong and her footing sure.

Was it wrong to feel excited at this? She didn’t know, didn’t particularly care, her body thrummed with intense energy as she sprinted towards the building. She reached back into her quiver, heard, “Grappling arrow.”

She yanked it out, knocked it, aimed at the second floor, and fired.

The back of that arrow caught on her gauntlet as it streaked away, and a tiny filament of cable unspooled. The arrow plunged into hard concrete upstairs, and the winch on the shaft pulled her up.

She leapt into the second floor, and as she came through the window, she fished a regular arrow out of her quiver and had it loaded before she landed.

She hit the ground, feet spread for stability. She made little noise as she slid to a stop on the dusty, dirty floor.

Beyond her, the second floor was dark except for a string of lights wrapped around an open stairwell in the middle.

She knelt, and slid down a switch on the side of her helm. Night vision glasses lowered in front of her eyes, and illuminated the night ahead of her.

There was no one here.

The second floor was roped off. From the stairwell, yellow caution tape warned against anyone straying out. She could see why, there were holes in the floor all over the place. Piles of broken concrete with veins of frayed rebar laid all over the second floor.

That might make it easier to get up to the third, at least.

She detached the cable from her gauntlet, released the hook remotely on the grappling arrow, and it reset. She stuffed it back into the quiver.

She thrummed her fingers over the grip of her bow, and looked at the holes in the ceiling. She wanted one less jagged than the others so she wouldn’t get caught pulling herself—

Bingo! She slung her bow to her back.

She ran at the hole she’d spotted, and leapt at it. She caught the bent rebar, swung for a moment in empty space, and then drew herself up through the floor. She knelt in the darkness of the third, and hesitated.

She could hear footsteps above her. Talking.

Lena spotted circular holes in the floor, with plastic frames around them.

She reached back, listened to the options until her fingers settled on, “Heartbeat Scanner.”

This she knocked against the bowstring, drew back, and listened. As the footsteps and talking receded, she fired.

The arrow was denser and featured complex electronics wired into the core of the shaft, with a transmitter near the fletching.

She heard a cheerful ping in her ear, and pulled her phone from her pocket. The arrow scanned the room and detected the unique electromagnetic signature of heartbeats, and used distance and intensity of the signal to mark placement on the phone.

There truly is an app for that. Though, she had to write the program.

She looked at the screen. And winced in pain as the light blinded her like suns that dropped before her eyes. She wrenched the helm from her head, and rubbed at her burned eyes.

What a stupid mistake, and the worst part was, she remembered making it before, too.

It took her several minutes before her eyes were clear enough to see anything.

She spent that time swearing at herself for her own stupidity.

She looked at her phone. Twelve separate heartbeats that the scanner could detect. It hovered higher and occasionally fluctuated into the teens as other guards drew closer. The scanner’s range wasn’t large, she only covered about two thirds of the upper floor.

Lena looked around. There were a lot of guards, and she didn’t know if she had the speed to take them out quickly enough that they couldn’t call for back up or raise the alarm. She needed to remove a few of them from the fight before she went as hard as she could.

She put her helm back on, and put the phone in her pocket, and ran to the other end of the floor. She pulled a pointed metal piton from her belt, and stabbed it into the exterior wall. The tick it made against the hard brick was lost in the rumble of the storm.

She climbed up to the next floor. The windows were intact here, so she couldn’t just sneak in and start picking guards. She needed to get at them from another angle.

Lena climbed up to the roof.

Once there, she glanced at her phone again, this time deactivating the night vision when she got there.

She saw the heartbeats below her, and took a deep breath. She caught a whiff of cigarette. She looked around, saw a faint, isolated heartbeat on the far right side. She walked over, and leaned over the edge.

A balcony. With a smoking guard.

Lena returned to the middle of the roof, and knelt with the piton, and looked at the storm. It was nearby but there was a delay between the flash of lightning and surge of thunder.

She waited.

The flash, and she lifted her hand, and smashed the piton into the roof as the thunder rolled. The noise covered her striking the roof. She clipped the tail of the grappling arrow to it, and then knocked the arrow into her bow. She leaned over the edge of the roof, and fired the arrow into the man.

He yelled, and she triggered the retractor on the winch, and it dragged him bodily off his feet and up onto the roof. She kicked him hard in the face and he fell limp.

One down. A bunch to go.

She took back her arrow, and heard shouts. She retreated, knocked a regular arrow, and hesitated near the edge of the roof.

A guard appeared, and she fired. It caught him in the upper shoulder and back and he collapsed against the railing.

One of the others pointed at her, lifted his gun, but she’d already moved.

“To the roof!” someone shouted.

That’s progress! Two down. So much for evasion and easy pickings.

She sprinted at the door in the middle of the rooftop by the biggest of the air conditioning units. She got around the edge of the unit when the door blew open. She slowed, pulled a regular arrow again, and crouched.

She heard men’s boots crunch on the uneven pea-gravel on the roof. She made little noise in comparison. She pulled the arrow back to about half-tension, ready to go all the way and shoot if it she got spooked.

One man walked towards her, to her left. She heard him approach, though she still couldn’t see him. Lena stood flat against the huge unit, lifted her arm and drew the arrow back all the way. Still, she listened. Another guard flanked around behind her, just a few steps behind the guy ahead of her. She’d see Left Guy before Right Guy.

She had an idea.

She immediately sheathed the regular arrow, pulled a grappling arrow, and anchored the line to her gauntlet.

Left Guard stepped into view, and she fired before he swung his flashlight around to look at her.

The claws of the grappling arrow buried into the man’s chest and clothes, and he yelled, dropped his rifle.

She planted her feet, dropped her center of gravity, grabbed the line with both hands, and _heaved_.

Her motion, combined with the recall function on the winch mounted to the arrow, took the guard bodily off his feet. She dropped as he sailed over her, and slammed head first into his comrade.

She took back her arrow, and kicked them both into unconsciousness before another guard turned and fired at her without hesitation.

“Shit!” She ducked back into cover, Lena heard thunder without lighting, and then the guard that shot at her coughed, mightily, and skidded across the roof.

Lena glanced around the corner and saw, floating a little off the ground, Supergirl.

Supergirl turned and glared at Lena, but a guard emerged from the door and lifted his gun to shoot at them both.

“Behind you!” Lena yelled, grabbed a blunt arrow that’d hurt like hell but wouldn’t kill, and fired it in a fast reflex. It flew straight for the man’s head, but Supergirl caught it, and blew the man down.

“No killing,” Supergirl said.

“It would’ve rung his bell, not killed him!” the arrow was blunt, she’d heard the call in her ear before she’d knocked the arrow.

“Who are you?” Supergirl asked. Her brows were drawn together, and the rain slicked her blonde hair to her head. She did not blink as water ran into her eyes, and as scary as she looked, it was incredibly distracting. Lena felt herself rooted in place by the weight of Supergirl’s glare.

Lena shook her head, “Now’s not really a great time for me.”

“What are you doing here?”

“Come along and find out,” Lena broke free of her paralysis, and walked towards Supergirl. “Maybe you can lend a hand.”

“I don’t aid murderers,” Supergirl said, and blocked Lena’s path.

“I’m not a killer,” Lena said. “I’m trying to help.”

“Illegally.”

“Says the woman with eye lasers.”

Supergirl’s lip twitched, and a fourth guard emerged on the roof. He saw Supergirl, though, and hesitated. He was the most intelligent man Lena’d run into yet today.

Supergirl turned to him, and he just threw down his weapon. “Please don’t melt me.”

Lena smiled, despite herself.

Supergirl knocked him down. “Stay.”

“Okay,” he croaked.

Lena took the opportunity to rush down the stairs. She deactivated the night vision, and pulled a regular arrow from her quiver.

At the bottom, she saw a fifth man start up. He lifted his gun, she shot him in the upper chest, near the shoulder, and jumped down at him.

She slammed her boots into his chest, ripped the arrow out, and knocked him out with her knee when they both landed.

“Get ‘em!” someone called to Lena’s left.

Gunfire erupted from the far side of the room, and as Lena fired, Supergirl whooshed past her, and barreled through the men on the far side.

“That’s not fair!” Lena yelled. “I don’t need your help!”

It did not take her but a few seconds to knock every man down and leave them unconscious, except for the snitch, Eugene, in his office.

He probably had a gun. Supergirl stood, with her arms crossed, “I heard you wanted to kill this man.”

Lena glanced at Supergirl, wondered where she heard it from, and then realized that she’d probably heard Lena’s conversation with Morgan last night. Lena deflated. She wasn’t prepared to meet Supergirl like this.

“Eliminate is a euphemism that has many meanings.” Lena said, and tried to scrounge for a solution to get out of this successfully without disappointing the flying Kryptonian.

“So you do.” Supergirl said.

“No!” Lena slung her bow across her torso to free up her hands. “I meant to abduct him for information, make it look like he was brutally murdered, and use that as leverage to get the information I wanted in the first place. Because my contact is a prick, and won’t take an obscene fortune for information. No, they need me to do them a favor instead.”

Supergirl continued to glare at Lena, but Lena shrugged and said, “I assume he’s armed in there.” She gestured to the windowless cell of an office.

Supergirl looked away from Lena, and squinted. “Yes.”

“And he’s got a gun pointed at the door?”

“Yes.”

“Do you mind?” Lena asked. She backed up a few feet, and Supergirl glanced at Lena sideways, without moving her head. Then, with her eyes focused on the hard concrete wall, she squinted, her sockets grew pale blue with power, and concentrated lasers cut into the wall. The man beyond screamed.

“Thanks awfully,” Lena said, and reached for the door. Supergirl barreled in first and took the man by the collar.

“Oh come on!” Lena yelled. “That’s not fair either!”

“If you need to make some kind of mess here, I won’t stop you, but he’s not coming with you.”

“That’s bullshit!”

But Supergirl was already gone, having smashed out a window on the far side, and flown off.

Lena grumbled. She’d never seen Kara so irked, and the worst part was, it excited the absolute shit out of Lena. Kara could be commanding, stubborn, and resentful.

It was nice to know Kara was so human.

From a small bag Lena’d brought with her, she took a two liter plastic bottle full of dark red corn-syrup, and unscrewed it. This had the potential of being messy.

She aimed at the wall, and spritzed the dark red syrup. It came out soupy and in thick spurts, but it spattered well. Which was the point.

It took her ten minutes to decorate the place thoroughly. And then she took pictures. Which she promptly sent to Morgan. Not that they’d respond until she met with them, later on.

While she was wiping up the bottle and returning it to her bag, she heard Supergirl land again. She was loud, thumped onto the concrete, and when Lena turned, saw the hero with her arms crossed.

“Don’t look at me like that,” Lena said.

“Who are you?”

“Well I’m not answering that here.” Lena said but Kara probably knew already.

“You can come with me, then.” Supergirl said, a mean grin on her face.

“Why are you so irritated?”

“It’s not fun to fly in the rain.”

“Boo hoo,” Lena said. “One flip of your head and your hair is perfect again.”

“Okay,” Supergirl walked towards her. “You’re coming with me.”

“No!” Lena backed up, but Supergirl grabbed Lena by her collar and her belt and flew her away.

Lena screamed until she passed out, and then went limp.

This was bullshit.

 

#

 

Lena woke up in a very comfortable chair. She didn’t think prisons had chairs that comfortable.

She opened her eyes. There was a light nearby, a ceiling fixture with a green lampshade with a hand-painted grassy field with trees and sunlight painted on it. Prisons don’t have _that,_ either.

She rubbed at her face. Okay she wasn’t bound. That’s a strange thing.

It took her a minute to realize she could feel her face. Not the helm.

Fuck.

She looked around, first looked into the eyes of Supergirl, and then at an equally tall woman with short brunette hair and an absolutely incredulous expression on her face.

“I don’t get paid enough for this,” The other woman said. Lena recognized her from the scene of destruction in front of L-Corp earlier today.

“When you passed out, you addressed me as Kara,” Supergirl said.

“Oh crap,” Lena slumped in the chair. “You are Kara.”

“No I’m not,” Kara’s voice was high and defensive and prepubescent.

“You are, and I didn’t mean to tell you I knew like this.” Lena said. “But you scared the shit out of me and I did not know I physically said the words while delirious with fear and in and out of consciousness.”

“Just how fast did you fly her?” The other woman asked.

Kara’s lip trembled. “I may have pushed. A little.”

The other woman didn’t believe it but suppressed the laugh.

“Who are you?” Lena asked the other woman.

The other woman sobered, stiffened, and then said, “Special Agent Danvers. FBI.”

“No you’re not.” Lena said.

Agent Danvers looked offended, and Lena felt briefly stupid for not realizing. Danvers. Kara and Alex Danvers. Sisters.

“Yes I am,” Alex said.

“No,” Lena rubbed her eyes again. “Because Kara said you worked for the Department of Homeland Security and your jacket says FBI so clearly you’re neither.”

Kara and Alex looked at each other briefly and Kara had the good dignity to look ashamed.

“I honestly would like to say that this is the most peculiar conversation I’ve ever had,” Lena said. “But it’s not. And that’s what’s blowing my mind.”

“What was the weirdest one you’ve had?” Lena asked.

“I was in college and Lex had stormed my dorm room to be a prick about something, and got into the pot brownies my neighbor across the hall made,” Lena sighed. Stoned Lex was no less egomaniacal than sober Lex, he was just more existential, too, “So what happens now? Am I under arrest?”

“Not exactly.” Alex said, and stepped between Kara and Lena. It was a protective gesture, but it wasn’t missed on Kara, who took a step back. “You have us in a peculiar position. You’re a Luthor. And you know the name of my sister.”

“In my defense, I’m adopted, and also, Kara knows about my escapades tonight. You don’t think any of a hundred tabloids would pay for that? Let alone Kirkland?”

“Who’s Kirkland?”

“A mean guy who’s been trying to take over L-Corp.” Kara said.

“You should let him have it and go back to Metropolis.” Alex said.

Lena sat up straight, and with great pause and determination, said, “No.”

Alex crossed her arms over her chest. Then waved away Lena’s statement. “I don’t trust you.” She said.

“Imagine my surprise. I’m heartbroken. How will I sleep?” Lena asked.

“Lena?” Kara pleaded.

“If I’m not under arrest and I’m not being renditioned to some black-site from which I’ll never return, then what exactly _am_ I doing here?” Lena asked.

“Like I said. You have us in a unique position. You know my sister’s secret. Not a lot do. But the list of people who would exploit that knowledge is longer than either of us has any time to read.”

“I don’t doubt it,” Lena said.

“So while I do not trust you, your knowledge puts you in a unique bargaining position.” Alex did not like saying those words and she spent the entire conversation with her arms crossed tight over her chest. She wore a tactical thigh holster with a pistol in it, and spare magazines strapped to her opposite thigh. Lena wondered how much physical effort it took to not let her hands rest on the gun.

Lena considered. And then said, “You’re offering me a bribe. To keep quiet about Kara’s identity.”

Alex shrugged.

“A couple of things,” Lena stood up. Her body ached and she realized that was probably from the flying, not the fight she’d had. Though. It may have been from the fight. “I can’t be bought. By you, or any government, nor any living person.”

Alex started to protest, she wagged a finger in Lena’s face.

“Lemme finish!” Lena pleaded, hands in front of her.

Alex groaned in her throat but withdrew her finger.

“I like Kara. And I would not do anything to endanger her.”

“I don’t believe you.”

“Well that’s just tough shit, Alex, because I don’t know how to prove that I like her and don’t want to see her get hurt.”

Lena glanced at Kara, who throughout this conversation grew to look more and more uncomfortable. Lena didn’t know why, and it took her too long to realize it was the fight between Alex and herself. Lena took a slow breath and tried to calm herself. Lena’s entire hope for the past two days had been to make an honorable and impressive impression on Supergirl. Not feud with her sister.

Alex did not relax. “Kara,” Alex said without turning, “Can you give us a minute?”

“Um. Okay. Yeah. Just don’t wreck my apartment? Please? Mrs. McGreggor down the hall has a bad heart and a lot of crashing will startle her.”

And with that Kara flew out the window.

Lena slumped in the chair.

“You have a crush on my sister,” Alex said. “What the actual fuck?”

“Hey,” Lena shrugged. “She’s cute. Okay? And she’s obnoxiously attractive. Like. Powerful magnetically attractive. Okay?”

“So is this your backwards way of asking for her number?”

“No.” Lena said, and deflated again. “I wouldn’t ask for it.”

“Why not?” Alex stiffened, “Kara not good enough for a Luthor?”

“Two things,” Lena held up two fingers as she counted them off in her head, “No, _three_ things. First, the last person’s honor you need to defend is Kara’s.”

“She’s my sister and you can’t stop me.”

Lena hesitated, “Okay. Fair point.”

“Two things?” Alex pushed.

“Yeah. One, Kara is the best of everything I could ever desire in a significant other. If anything, _I’m_ worried about being good enough for her—“

“You’re not.” Alex said without hesitation.

Lena hesitated, saw the absolute honesty in Alex’s face.

“Well. Yeah. I knew that. But thanks for the confirmation.” Lena couldn’t hold Alex’s glare and didn’t try.

Alex did not smile.

“Besides, it’s inappropriate.” Lena finished.

“Because you’re a Luthor and your family has a history of killing Supers.”

“No,” Lena sighed. “Because Kara Danvers still, for the moment, works for me. And I’m the boss. She’s not in a position to give honest consent to any advances I may make towards her.”

Alex, for all her stalwart training, was not prepared for that and her eyebrows went sky-high as she struggled to process it.

“What the hell does that mean?” Alex blurted.

“It means,” Lena tried not to savor the completely confused look on Alex’s face and failed. “That if I date someone, I want to be an equal to them. Not monetary, not in power, I mean, if they agree to go out with me, it’s because they have the option to say no without consequence. Kara’s my executive assistant, Agent Danvers. In what universe is it appropriate for the CEO to hit on an assistant?”

Alex held Lena’s glare uncomfortably and between them a great many things went unspoken. Including a brief and incredibly personal realization that there was indeed an answer to that question.

“Okay,” Lena said. “Stupid question.”

“Nah,” Alex shrugged. “I’m not sure any other CEO would admit that though. I kinda thought the point of being the boss was to subjugate everyone under you. So a person like that wouldn’t be worried about the morality of consent when they hit on their secretary.”

“I’m not most CEOs.”

“I may,” Alex looked away and uncrossed her arms to put her hands on her hips. “Be noticing that.”

Well. It was progress. The general hostility lowered between them. When in doubt, being pissed at the patriarchy was a great way to diffuse tension. Something about universal adversaries?

Alex backed up a little and paced slowly in the middle of the apartment. Lena looked around.

The space was warm and airy. The kitchen table was littered with books, the couch was well-used and pushed up against the far wall, there were containers of takeout on the coffee table in front of the couch. The wood, colors, and trim of the apartment were all bright and warm and inviting.

Lena had zero difficulty believing this is where Kara slept.

“If it makes this easier, do you want to put me on a polygraph?” Lena asked.

“No,” Alex took a long breath and let it out in a hurry. “I think you could beat one if you wanted to.”

“There’s nothing I could do that’d give you an inclination to trust me?” Lena asked.

“Not really,” She said.

“What time is it?” Lena asked. She didn’t have her phone and she didn’t wear a wrist watch.

Alex told her.

“Great,” Lena slumped. “I missed my deadline.” Even though she’d done what Morgan asked, (to a degree) being late wasn’t going to earn her the favor she needed. She doubted they’d see their way into just helping her out of the kindness of their heart.

“Do you have my phone?” Lena asked.

“Yes.”

“May I see it?”

Alex fished it from her pocket, activated the screen, and held it up in front of Lena.

Lena reached for it, Alex stepped back.

“Really?” Lena asked, deadpan. Alex smirked. And then held the phone out again.

A picture message from Morgan. She didn’t know what the message said but she doubted it was good.

“Can I read that, please?”

“How do I know you won’t use this to summon help so you can take us down?”

“You don’t. But I’m not going to because it genuinely never occurred to me.”

“I don’t believe that.”

“I’m _not_ my brother,” Lena said, jaw clenched. “I am trying to rebuild out of the bullshit ashes he left me!”

“You’re still a Luthor.” Alex said, like that explained everything.

“Who was it that actually got him arrested?”

“Batman.”

“No,” Lena shook her head. “Batman killed the automated war machine that Lex left behind him when the battle turned against him.” it hadn’t taken long. Lex nearly killed Superman, Batman intervened, and together they overpowered Lex’s armored mech. Lex called in a second as backup, and escaped while the two heroes fought to contain the two mechs. “The person who actually broke into Lex’s compound and abducted him and dumped him on the steps of the GCPD? That was me.” Lena thumped herself on the breastbone. “I did that. I turned my brother over. I split the entire family over this.”

“Your family wasn’t exactly the most stable to begin with.”

Lena quit. She stood up, winced at the motion, gained her balance. “Am I under arrest?”

“No.” Alex said.

“Then I’m leaving. Gimme my phone.”

“No.” Alex said.

“What do I have to do to prove to you that I’m not evil!” Lena screamed.

“Enough!” Kara burst into the room through the window. “Alex, is my vouching for her enough or isn’t it?”

Alex bristled, and shot a glance at Kara but struggled to remain calm. Alex didn’t want to answer, Lena could see the way she was chewing it over in her mouth.

“It’s not,” Lena realized.

Alex didn’t respond to Lena. She didn’t look at Kara, either.

“Alex, what is it about her that you hate so much?” Kara crossed her arms and came to stand opposite both Lena and Alex.

Alex groaned, “I can’t tell you in front of her.” She gestured to Lena.

“You can and you will,” Kara said. “Because this is insane! Last night you were smiling with me when we were talking. Now you are more than ready to persecute. What’s going on?”

Alex rolled her eyes, “Two hours ago, one hundred pounds of unprocessed Kryptonite vanished from a storage location outside National City.”

Lena’s heart sank. She had an idea where this was going.

“Where was it taken from?” Kara asked, her voice reserved.

“An isolation facility, owned by LuxCorp.” Alex met Lena’s eyes.

Lena had two thoughts. One, Alex probably hadn’t heard that she was changing the name of her company. Two, that she was absolutely screwed.

All of that faded into pure insignificance because when Lena looked at Kara, Lena watched Kara’s heart break. Kara’s brows raised, her jaw came open and she stared at Lena. Kara shook her head in disbelief.

There was nothing worse to Lena than the look of betrayal on Kara’s face.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Lena spends some time in the basement of the DEO, and Kara tries to come to grips with the revelation. 
> 
> (I know this chapter is a hard one so I may update a little earlier this week.)


	10. Kara's Confrontational

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Kara interrogates Lena over the missing Kryptonite. Tensions run high and reconciliation looks hard to find, until J'onn intervenes.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> MAJOR CHARACTER DEATHS ARE MENTIONED, but it's a nightmare. no one's dead. 
> 
> canon compliance? we don't need no schtinking canon compliance! mostly because i can't be bothered. this is for fun.   
> they get together soon, i promise. next chapter. so much sweetness and sap ya'll gonna get cavities. 
> 
> follow me @thejollywriter on Tumblr!

Kryptonite terrified Kara. She had reason to be afraid, given what it did to her body. And it was the only thing that could genuinely hurt her.

After Lex Luthor arrested, all the research he’d done to kill Superman came into the hands of the DEO. Though Lex wasn’t the only one to use Kryptonite against a Super. Lillian did, too.

Sometimes Kara woke up in the middle of the night, paralyzed with fear, and her lips were sticky with her own blood she’d coughed up.

It took her a minute to realize she was whole, she wasn’t wounded, and Lillian was gone.  

An ounce of the stuff, even within a dozen feet of her, would dull her powers. One hundred pounds? It was the closest thing anyone had to a bomb that could kill her that she knew of.

She sat in the basement of the DEO’s bunker with J’onn and Lena. Alex and Maggie were out investigating. Since Maggie was the actual detective, and Alex had personal stake in finding the Kryptonite and ensuring it wasn’t used.

At least Lena wasn’t technically under arrest.

They sat around the briefing table. It was an octagonal metal table with an opaque white surface. J’onn had a cup of coffee in front of him. Kara had a tall glass of orange juice. Lena had coffee as well but hers was untouched.

Lena’s hair was a mess, her eyes were splotchy and bloodshot, her cheeks were flushed unevenly, and the split on her lip was an ugly, bruised mess. She looked tired and worn, and fractional to her normal self.

Kara wanted nothing more than to hug her fiercely and apologize for Alex’s behavior. She’d heard everything that’d been said between Lena and Alex.

Kara hadn’t gone far when she left them to talk. Paced around the roof while she and Alex talked. It wasn’t that she didn’t trust either of them not to kill each other. Mostly it was just, the distance Kara would have had to have flown to not hear them would’ve been too far away to get back quickly if things escalated.

If she’d even heard the escalation.

Now Lena was withdrawn and quiet and didn’t make eye-contact with anyone. Kara looked at J’onn but he only shrugged.

“Lena?” Kara asked.

Lena turned slowly and lifted her eyes to Kara’s face.

“I’m sorry about this.” Kara said.

Lena’s gaze slipped away. She shrugged. “’S not like I’m unfamiliar with it.” She clenched her jaw. “My brother does something stupid and I have to clean up. And take the blame for it. This is probably an extension of that.”

Kara didn’t want to ask the question. She didn’t want to have to ask, point blank, if she’d known there was Kryptonite in that facility. And if she had, did she know it was missing.

“Ms. Luthor?” J’onn asked. “Can you look at me?”

“Please don’t call me that.” Lena said. She looked at her hands. “I’m not a Luthor.”

J’onn didn’t say anything for a long moment. He glanced at Kara, and said, “I don’t know how to address you, then.”

“Lena’s fine.” Lena’s shoulders fell. She had none of her power, none of her vigor. Kara ached looking at her. She wished to hug her, apologize for doubting her, for Alex’s doubt, to try and ease the pain in Lena’s heart.

Kara remained where she was, but not without extraordinary effort.

“Lena,” J’onn asked, “Did you know about the Kryptonite?”

“No.” Lena shook her head. “But I don’t imagine you’ll believe that.”

“I do,” J’onn said. He leaned back and stretched. “I do believe you.”

Lena glanced up without lifting her head. “You do?”

“Yes,” J’onn said. “Did you have any idea LuxCorp had a facility out there?”

“No,” she said. “I came to National City because we’d had no dealings here in the past.”

J’onn nodded. “Any idea who might want to hurt you or your company in this way?”

“I got a long list of enemies,” Lena sighed. “But at the top of it, at the moment, is a fella called Kirkland.”

“Ah.” J’onn said. “Who’s he?”

“Kirkland is a usurper. He’s trying to take L-Corp away from Lena.” Kara said.

“You changed the name?” J’onn asked.

“Had good reason to. After they blew up my marquees.”

“You think that was Kirkland, too?”

“It would not surprise me.” Lena said. “I was going to ask Morgan about it tonight but didn’t get the chance, on account of.” Lena gestured to the bunker.

“Who’s Morgan?” J’onn asked.

“National City’s favorite snitch. Sells to everyone, and that makes them untouchable.” Lena said.

“What arrangement did you make in order to obtain this information?”

“They wanted their competition eliminated.”

“Which is what Supergirl interrupted you with tonight.” J’onn said.

“Yes.” Lena stared into her coffee.

“Lena,” J’onn leaned forward. “I’d like to make a suggestion.”

“Okay. I can’t stop you even if I didn’t want to hear it, so, go ahead.”

He hesitated, “I’d be willing to allow you to follow through with your appointment, if you were escorted.”

“One of your agents would tip Morgan off two blocks away. And I doubt you want your ringer,” Lena gestured to Supergirl. “Playing chaperone while there’s a kryptonite bomb wandering around.”

“Well, Morgan certainly wouldn’t see her,” J’onn smirked. “Unless they have radar.”

Kara wanted to smile. It was funny. But Lena looked so hurt, so wounded by everything tonight that she did not react.

“I’m not sure it matters. Kirkland’s gonna take my company away from me. And you lot are gonna lock me up.”

“What makes you so sure?”

“Because if someone has wherewithal enough to frame L-Corp for the loss of the kryptonite, they’ve got enough intelligence to frame me, personally, for its use.”

“You sound beaten already,” J’onn said. “All the reports I’ve seen indicate that the fight ain’t over till you say it is.”

“What the fuck does it matter?” Lena burst, and slammed both hands down on the planning table. “Nothing I do gets me enough headway to get back into the fight!” she deflated. “The one useful lesson my father taught me was never pick a fight I can’t win. I’m not stupid enough to think I can still come back from this.”

“Then you are defeated.” J’onn’s voice didn’t change pitch.

“I don’t know if I am or not.” Lena rubbed her face. “I’ve had a really, really, bad day.”

“When I was in college,” J’onn said. “I had this professor, absolute bag of dicks. Just, awful, in every conceivable way. But he had rules. If you adhered to his rules, you had a chance of being okay. One day I caught the flu, just floored me immediately for a week. Involved a doctor’s visit and everything. So, in order to still make a grade, I had to turn up with a doctor’s note. Otherwise, he’d just write off my week as sick and leave me with a failing grade.”

“So?”

“If Supergirl went to your meet with Morgan with you, would that be an adequate enough doctor’s note, as it were, for Morgan to keep dealing anyway?”

Lena shrugged. “Maybe. I don’t know. Morgan’s cagey and they’re not real keen on sharing particulars of how they operate with me.”

“It could be worth a shot,” Kara tried to sound gentle and encouraging. Lena didn’t look at Supergirl.

“I got a proposition.” J’onn said. “On a probationary basis, until we finish this investigation into the missing Kryptonite, I am willing to commission you on a case-by-case basis, as a subcontractor with the DEO.”

Lena turned her head slowly to meet J’onn’s gaze. “What does that mean?”

“It means I give you back the bow and you and Supergirl go do the thing you had planned tonight anyway.”

“Why?”

“Supergirl vouched for your character,” J’onn said without blinking. “There is no higher recommendation. So unless you bamboozled her somehow—“

“I haven’t,” Lena snapped.

“Then I guess you haven’t inherited the family legacy after all.” J’onn stood up and stretched. “Your gear’s in a locker, upstairs.”

“Is this a joke?” Lena asked.

Kara stiffened, looked at J’onn for some indicator that this was on the level or not. But he wasn’t a bluffing man, and if this was his offer, Kara had no doubt that it was legit.

Still. It was significant.

J’onn walked away with his coffee cup, but without giving a real answer. Lena looked over at Kara. “Is this a joke?”

“No.” Kara said. “He meant that.”

“So I’m free to go?”

“Yes.”

“And if I just wanted to go home to bed?”

“That could be arranged, too.” Kara nodded.

Lena considered, and then met Kara’s eyes. Lena asked, “Do you spy on me for him? He mentioned getting reports. I don’t know anyone else close enough to me who would share the kind of information he has access to.”

Kara slumped. “Um. Kinda. Yeah.”

“Oh.” Lena hesitated for a moment, and she seemed slow to process that. She deflated. “Well. That hurt more than I expected it to.”

Kara reached for her but Lena pulled back. “No.” Lena said. “Please don’t touch me? Okay? I trusted you. And I don’t know how to deal with everything that’s come to pass tonight.”

“Lena, I was scared,” Kara didn’t approach and she kept her hands close to her so Lena couldn’t see them shake. “My cousin was so close to dying and it still freaks me out sometimes. Because of kryptonite, because of a Luthor. And then you pick up the ashes of that and you ran out here? I don’t know what I was supposed to think.”

Lena didn’t say anything.

Kara started to pace, “I wasn’t quiet as a hero, here. I’m not exactly stealthy,” She gave a whoosh of her cape to demonstrate. “And it’s public knowledge that I’m here. So when a Luthor turned up in the only other place a Super was operating, I got scared.”

“Did you think to just ask me?” Lena asked.

“No.” Kara said. “Because I knew your brother. And I didn’t want to pick a fight with someone I knew nothing about.”

“Whose idea was it for you, _personally_ , to spy on me?”

“J’onn’s.” Kara said. “Everyone else was against it. Including me.”

“And that’s when Kara Danvers started working for me.” Lena said.

“Yeah,” Kara nodded. “That’s right.”

“Did it ever occur to you to come clean?”

“I had doubts in the first week,” Kara said. “And I wanted to.”

“What did I do?” Lena said. “I don’t remember the first week being particularly exciting.”

“My first day, I got your coffee order. And every morning, I bring you coffee and a pastry of some kind. It wasn’t an official order. Just a kind of ‘g’morning boss’ habit I got into. Tuesday morning,” Kara tugged on the edges of her cape and hugged it around herself, “You brought me coffee. And donuts. And you said thank you for my help.”

Lena stared at Kara and Kara tried to look at her honestly.

“It surprised me. How bad could you be if you brought me coffee and smiled openly at me and asked how I was doing. And it wasn’t small-talk. You genuinely seemed to care.” Kara said.

“And that’s when you started to doubt that I was evil?”

“Yeah. And I asked to be reassigned. Someone else could do the actual spy work.”

“You didn’t want to spy on me after that?” Lena asked.

“I didn’t want to in the first place but I agreed because I’d seen my cousin with a glowing green spear in his chest and a Luthor standing over him.” Kara broke and her eyes were wet and the nightmare that kept her up way too often was that it was _Kara_ speared to the ground. And Alex was dead nearby, trying to help Kara, and neither of them survived the confrontation with the Luthor. “It gave me nightmares.”

“You don’t look at me like I’m the cause,” Lena hesitant step towards Kara, and then another. Kara didn’t rush towards her, she let Lena come to her at her own pace.

“You’re not. Not anymore. I got to know you and the fear abated because I started to believe that you weren’t my enemy.”

“I’m not, Kara. I have no way to prove it to you except my word.” Lena said.

“Your word was always good enough for me.” Kara said. “I’m sorry Lena. Truly, wholly, sorry.” They were close enough now to almost touch and Kara wanted to reach out but didn’t. “Please. I will do anything to make up for how I’ve hurt you tonight.”

They were close enough to share the same air, but an impassable divide separated them. Kara wanted to plead more, on her knees even, for the chance.

Lena reached up and ran a thumb over Kara’s cheek. Lena’s thumb came away damp.

“I don’t like to see you cry.” Lena whispered. “Please don’t cry for me?”

“I hurt you,” Kara said. “I betrayed you and I messed up and I was wrong.”

“No matter how I reject the name, I am a Luthor,” Lena voice was no louder.

“No, Lena, it’s—“

“Let me finish, honey, please,” Lena put a finger over Kara’s lips while Kara wrangled with Lena’s words. Honey. It’s a cute nickname, and she’d heard Maggie and Alex use it sometimes. But from Lena, even in a rush, it carried weight that made her nerves dance in anticipation.

“A Luthor I may be,” Lena said. “But no one’s apologized for hurting me before.”

“They should,” Kara said. “They’re wrong.”

Lena gave a small smile.

“I will do anything in my power to make this right by you,” Kara whispered.

“Can I hug you?” Lena asked.

“Always,” Kara squeaked, and Lena slipped her arms around Kara’s neck. Kara put her arms around Kara’s torso and hugged the other woman close to her. They almost bumped knees.

“I will be mad at you for a little,” Lena said. “And it may come out unexpectedly.”

“That’s okay.”

“But I will always apologize. I don’t want to be at crossed purposes with you.”

“We won’t be. I promise.” Kara said. “What did you actually want to ask me? Officially?”

“Officially, I was going to ask for your help as a vigilante.”

“So you don’t run off and get yourself killed in over-filled warehouses full of jumpy guys?”

“Yeah,” Lena shrugged. “I still think I had it.”

“You probably did have it but you probably would’ve had to kill someone to do it.” Kara didn’t judge her hard, but it hung there ugly, between them.

“If we work together,” Lena spoke slowly. “I promise to adhere to your moral code.”

Kara stood tall and bobbed her head. “Okay. That’ll work.”

“Would you mind showing me the way out, Ms. Danvers?” Lena asked.

Kara bubbled giddily inside and slid her arm through Lena’s offered elbow and together they walked out. “Not at all, Ms. Luthor.”

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Lena carries on with her extremely long night, with Kara "Supergirl" Danvers by her side. They make a pretty awesome team. And also find their way into each others' arms.


	11. Lena's Hypothetical Trial

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Lena finds an unexpected ally in Supergirl, and the two spend the night together. it does not go the way either of them expects.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> This is mostly fluff. And also they get together. 
> 
> follow me @thejollywriter on Tumblr!

Lena hadn’t felt this light in months. Yes, technically, she was side-by-side with a kind of traitor in her midst. At the same time, how do you hold that kind of grudge against _Supergirl_?

The woman was sunshine personified and her reason to spy on Lena was so honest and sincere Lena felt stupid for not having realized it first. On top of that, there was a certain modicum of guilt. Her presence had, initially, scared Kara.

“Do I still scare you?” Lena asked. Kara flew (far more gently this time) Lena back towards the city.

“Huh?” Kara looked down. She carried Lena bridal-style, and despite the awkwardness of that, flying with Kara wasn’t uncomfortable. Kara’s grip was sure and strong and she didn’t seem to strain to hold Lena aloft. Lena kept her arms around Supergirl’s neck. And tried not to look down.

“You agreed to spy on me because I scared you. Do I still?”

“No,” Kara said without hesitation. “But you do surprise me, often.”

Lena grinned. She doubted Kara meant it as a compliment but Lena took it thusly.

Kara flew into the lower districts of National City and set them down on a high rooftop a couple of blocks from the stripped-out warehouse Lena usually met with Morgan at. The sun was due to rise soon, and the horizon already paled as darkness retreated across the sky.

“I hope I can help make up for hijacking your night,” Kara said.

“Your presence might help indeed,” Lena nodded.

Lena squinted into the darkness. She left her helm off, hung from a strap on her shoulder. Her bow remained slung across her torso. She spotted the two guards in the alley, the same place they usually stood.

“Well.” Lena said. “Morgan’s in. I don’t know if they’ll come out though.” She pulled her helm off the strap, and tugged it down onto her head. Morgan knew who she was, but she had no idea who else might be eavesdropping. She wasn’t ready to deal with tabloids, let alone real newspapers, telling stories about Lena being a vigilante.

“Shall we?” Kara asked.

“Sure.”

Kara picked Lena up again, just as gently as before, and drifted to the ground. They walked towards the meeting place.

Lena drew her bow, knocked an arrow, and pulled it to full tension as she drew even with the alley. The guards stood up.

“Do not,” Lena said. “Just don’t bother.”

Pale light radiated from Lena’s left, from where Kara walked next to Lena. The guards raised their hands, and backed away from the alley. The rain stopped a little while ago but the ground was still wet. Whatever light Kara made reflected off the pavement.

“Good.” Lena said. Once they were out of sight, towards the meeting place, she turned to Kara, and noticed Kara’s eyes darken. She’d done the eye-laser thing that Supergirl can do. “Okay, that’s more intimidating than I am.” Lena eased tension off the bow until it was idle, arrow still knocked.

“Really?” Kara asked.

“Oh yeah,” Lena said.

“You are late,” Morgan said, a dozen yards away. Lena looked from Kara to the back of the warehouse. Morgan stood in deep shadow, hands on hips.

“I got detained,” Lena said.

“That’s my fault,” Supergirl waved, sheepish. “Sorry. I didn’t know she had to meet you.”

Morgan’s hands slid off their hips. Lena couldn’t tell if it was surprise or shock or just stunned silence, but she figured it was a combination of all three. There’s a difference between seeing Supergirl on TV, and meeting her in person.

You don’t get the radiance of Good when you see her on TV.

“Why do you care about the life of one lowly snitch trying to pit people against each other?” Morgan began to walk towards Kara and Lena.

“Well that’s a silly question, from someone who supposedly knows a whole bunch about everything.” Kara managed to sound sweet while she condescended at Morgan. Lena grinned. She was so proud of her.

Kara continued, “A new vigilante was making mayhem in National City. You don’t think I’m going to care that it’s happening?”

“Fair point.” Morgan held their hands up. “Then what are you? A doctor’s note to excuse a tardy school girl?”

“That’s rude even by your own standards,” Lena snapped.

“I’ve had a long night. You weren’t subtle with Eugene.”

“You didn’t ask for subtlety. You asked for a message to be sent.”

Morgan sighed. “Yeah. Fine. Whatever.”

Something was off. Morgan had never been this jumpy before. The entire purpose of meeting them was to have the client off-balance, so that lies are easier to find. Even for Lena, meeting Morgan wasn’t pleasant. She never felt like she had an advantage to play. They were always calm, calculating, and utterly deliberate.

“It’s not like we’re keeping you up past your bedtime,” Lena said. “What’s got you so jumpy?”

“You are, in point of fact,” Morgan said. “I wished to call it an early night.”

“Then why did you make an exception for me?” Lena asked.

Morgan said nothing for a long moment. Lena’s stomach churned, and not just from hunger. Something was wrong. Very wrong.

She drew back her bow and aimed it at Morgan. “Honesty. Now.” Lena said.

“No,” Morgan flinched. “I owe you nothing.”

“Someone get to you, Morgan?” Lena asked.

“No.” They said.

“They’re lying,” Kara said.

“I got this, you find the snitch,” Lena yanked off the regular, sharp-tipped arrow, stuffed it into the quiver, and pulled an arrow with an electrical-shocker tip.

Kara blitzed into the sky, Lena heard the sonic boom a moment later, and Lena fired the arrow at Morgan.

Morgan tried to turn, run away, but the arrow caught them in the shoulder, and they spasmed, went down, hard.

Lena picked up the arrow, deactivated it, and returned it to her quiver. Then she searched Morgan, swiftly.

Under the collar, Lena found a wire, which led to a small transmitter on their belt. “Wow,” Lena said. “That’s low.”

“Turns out there are meaner players in this town than even the mafia,” Morgan wheezed.

“You gonna be honest now? While we still have a chance?”

“I got news that you’d dealt with Eugene five hours ago. Four hours ago, Wilhelm visited me with a crew of Federal toughs.”

“What the hell? I didn’t know Wilhelm went legit.”

“Neither did I. I guess times are tough enough even smugglers are selling to the government.”

“What’s Wilhelm after?” Lena asked.

“A stash of Kryptonite. I don’t know why.”

“There was a theft, earlier tonight.” Lena said.

“I heard,” Morgan sat up, and gestured to Lena to help them to their feet. Lena obliged.

“Those feds gonna come for you now?” Lena asked.

“Almost certainly.”

“How long do I have?”

“Not very.”

“If you can slip these feds, I’ll visit you in a day.”

“I’m not the concern,” Morgan said. “They’re hanging these thefts on you.” They turned to walk away. “Mind your minions.” And Morgan was gone.

Lena pulled a grappling arrow, shot it into the edge of the roof next to the warehouse, and climbed up.

Once there, she saw Kara float in the sky nearby.

“Hey,” Lena said. Kara looked over, came to Lena.

“Are you okay?” Kara asked.

“Fine,” Lena said. “Why?”

Kara gestured. Black SUVs stopped in front of the warehouse and heavily armed agents swarmed it. That explained who was listening. And why Kara was hesitant to engage.

“Good thing I wore my mask,” Lena said. “Can we get out of here?” she strapped her bow to her back.

“Hang tight,” Kara picked her up and whooshed her away.

 

#

 

They stood on the roof of Lena’s penthouse. Lena wasn’t ready to call it a night, and after Kara put Lena down, Kara didn’t seem to be in a rush to leave.

Lena had no idea what to say, not really. How did she bridge the gap that now existed between them? Kara was Supergirl, and a spy against Lena. Lena was a vigilante and currently the last one responsible for a hundred pounds of the one thing that can kill Kara.

Lena rubbed at her eyes. She was exhausted. It’d been an awfully long night and she still had to get up and go to work in the morning. She looked at her watch. Her alarm clock would go off shortly. So much for any chance at sleep.

“I’m sorry I kept you up all night,” Lena said.

Kara turned, tired but eyes still bright. She shrugged, “I’m sorry I spied on you.”

Lena shook her head, said, “I get it. I’m not mad, actually.”

“Really?” Kara shrunk on herself a little. “You promise?”

“Promise.” Lena smiled. “Can I invite you in? Give you breakfast? You must be starved.”

“I am,” Kara nodded, but then held up her hands. “But I don’t want to impose!”

“No imposition,” Lena mantled over the edge of the roof and dropped onto her balcony. “Come on in.”

Kara floated down gracefully, and followed Lena into the training room.

“Oh wow,” Kara said. “I guess you can’t go to a regular gym, can you?”

“It’s never closed, and no one tries to hit on me.” Lena said. She shrugged out of her bow and quiver, laid them both down on the altar she’d made. “Kitchen’s that way, if you want to start scrounging. I’ll be out in a minute to make you something proper.”

“Are you sure?” Kara had her arms crossed over her chest and rubbed her own biceps, as if to warm up. “I feel bad just wandering your place.”

“I got nothing to hide from you,” Lena turned, lifted an eyebrow, and met Kara’s eyes.

Kara blushed, and said, “That’s not fair.”

“What is?” Lena looked back to her bow. With a clean rag and some gentle wood-safe cleaner, she began to wipe down the limbs. Afterwards, she’d polish it, and wax the bowstring, before she hung it up.

“Your looking at me that way,” Kara said. “It’s mean.” She pouted.

Lena smirked, “I’m sorry. Should I not do it again?”

“I didn’t say that,” Kara walked slowly over to Lena. “What’re you doing?”

“It’s a habit,” Lena said. She had the cloth wrapped around the limbs, and with thumb and forefinger, she rubbed down the length of the bow. “You take care of the things that matter. Ya’ know?”

“Yeah,” Kara stood near to Lena and watched her clean the bow. Despite the long night, Kara still smelled nice. Lena tried not to get distracted. And failed.

“You missed a spot,” Kara nudged Lena and Lena looked away so Kara wouldn’t see her blush.

“Okay I see what you mean.” Lena said. She set the dirty rag aside, and dipped a second, clean one, in a small tub of polish in the drawer under the altar’s surface.

“Oh yeah?” Kara asked. “In what way?”

“You’re distracting,” Lena looked sideways at Kara and did the eyebrow thing again.

Kara tried, Lena gave her that. She tried so hard to keep her eyes locked on Lena, but she blushed furiously and looked away. “How do you do that?” Kara squeaked.

“Oh it’s easy,” It was easier to polish the bow than to clean it and the polishing rag came away far cleaner in appearance. She hung the bow up, and grabbed both dirty rags. She took them into the penthouse proper, and dropped them in her hamper.

“Kitchen’s that way,” Lena said. “I just want to get out of this armor.”

“Okay.” Kara looked flustered still and unsure what to do. She sort of started towards the kitchen and glanced back at Lena.

“Unless you want to watch,” Lena leveled her eyes at Kara with a smirk.

Kara turned almost as red as her cape. “I’m. Um. I’m gonna go find. Something. Orange juice! That’s what. Okay. Yeah.” She walked away, head down, blushing madly.

Lena tried not to feel viscerally satisfied. And failed. She couldn’t stop smiling.

She shrugged out of her armor in her training room, locked the door behind her. She shivered; she’d sweat heavily during her night, and gotten soaked through by the rain. The coolness of her air conditioned apartment got to her. She rubbed her arms, and went into her bedroom to change. She’d shower soon but first, she wanted breakfast with Supergirl.

She put on sweats and a long-sleeved cotton t-shirt, and went into the kitchen. Kara stood there, at the kitchen island, two glasses in front of her and a jug of orange juice but her eyes were vacant.

“Kara?” Lena asked. Kara snapped to awareness.

“Hi. Um. Did you want some too?”

“Sure,” Lena said. “What would you like to eat?”

“Whatever you want’s fine.” Kara said.

“I didn’t ask what I wanted, Ms. Danvers,” Lena side-eyed Kara and walked to her pantry. “I asked what you’d like for breakfast.”

“I like pancakes.” Kara said, kinda sheepish.

“I can do that,” Lena pulled several boxes of quick-mix pancake batter from the pantry, and set them down next to the stove.

While Lena got together a skillet and mixing bowl and ingredients, she stewed. She liked Kara, liked her a lot. She didn’t remember having ever been so attracted to someone before. It was made complicated by the fact that Kara remained an employee and Lena the employer. And then made doubly more complicated because Kara was Supergirl.

Where did interpersonal equality begin and end here?

Lena didn’t know, not definitively, didn’t even have a starting point for an idea.

She set about mixing pancake batter.

“Are you okay?” Kara asked. She’s shifted to stand near Lena, just beyond the stove.

“Yeah. Why?” Lena looked up.

Biting her lip, Kara touched a forefinger to Lena’s pinched eyebrows. “You’re thinking really hard.”

Lena made a deliberate effort to relax her face. “It’s been a long night. And I still have a lot on my mind.”

“What can I do to help?”

“I’m not rightfully sure,” Lena said. “Part of what I’m trying to figure out is where you and I now stand.”

“Are you upset with me?” Kara asked.

“No,” Lena put down her spatula to reach out and touch Kara’s arm. “I’m not. I just,” Lena struggled for the words. “I’m very tired. And I may be in danger of making declarations or professions that I’m not sure I should make.”

Kara angled her head. “I’m curious. But I also don’t want to push you into saying something you’ll regret.”

Lena continued to pour pancake batter onto the skillet, and stack the finished pancakes on a glass plate. The pile seemed to grow without Lena paying attention to it.

“Well,” Lena drew the word out. “I want to tell you. But. Maybe there’s a way to do it without any actual consequence?”

“I’m listening.”

“If we had this conversation, hypothetically, none of it would be life-affirming. And if you were so inclined, we could parse it. As necessary.”

“Hypothetically.” Kara raised an eyebrow.

“Yes,” Lena said.

“Well,” Kara drew the word out. “Hypothetically. What do you have to say?”

“Hypothetically,” Lena couldn’t stop herself from grinning. “I would say that you are powerfully attractive, and from minute one, I have been attracted to you.”

“Oh really?”

“I speak only hypothetically,” Lena said, and it felt like the word were becoming a joke.

“Well,” Kara seemed to weigh her declaration. “I would have to say that I think about you an awful lot for someone who just gives me orders.”

“You do? What do you think?”

“Hypothetically?”

“Of course!” Lena grinned. She’d finished the batter and now had a heaping plate full of pancakes. She carried those to the island and went back for regular glass plates, silverware, and maple syrup.

“Hypothetically,” And Kara began to blush ferociously, “I think you’re unfairly beautiful and you distract me all the time.”

“That goes both ways, Ms. Danvers.”

“And that’s another thing!” Kara squeaked. “You can’t say my name like that.”

“Like what?” Lena laughed at how giddy Kara became. “I just say your name.”

“No,” Kara wagged a finger at Lena. “You _say_ Jess’s name. You _say_ Alana’s name. You,” she couldn’t even finish without tripping over her tongue. Lena put the silverware down on the kitchen island and stood close in front of Kara. Kara couldn’t look at Lena without giggling.

“Go on,” Lena said. “Don’t leave me in suspense, Ms. Danvers.” Lena knew exactly how she said Kara’s name, but she wanted to see how Kara explained it.

“You,” Kara took a calming breath. “Okay please don’t hate me for this.”

“I won’t. Not even a little.” Lena grinned, and her lip only ached a little.

“You,” Kara took a calming breath. “You. Like. You, _coo_ my name.” Kara shook her head, “That’s not the word but I don’t think I can say it.”

“I’d like you to, actually,” Lena stood a little closer. “I’m dying of curiosity now.”

“No, please, I don’t wanna,” Kara pleaded. “I’m so embarrassed.”

“I’m not,” Lena grinned. “I’m having fun.”

“That’s because you’re mean.”

“I know, I’m awful. I should be locked up.”

Kara wouldn’t look at her. She had a steady blush going and Lena noticed that it spread down her neck and disappeared into her uniform. She wondered if Kara was a full body blusher. She wanted to find out.

“Can you read minds?” Lena asked.

“No. Why?” Kara met Lena’s eyes briefly.

“Because given how badly you’re blushing, if you could read my mind, you may explode.”

Kara put a hand over her mouth and giggled. “Okay I’m not saying it. You’re mean and evil and I’m not rewarding your behavior.”

“Oh, come on,” it was Lena’s turn to plead. “Please? Please tell me.”

“No. You have to be nice. And then I’ll tell you.”

Lena liked this. She liked how easy this was, how comfortable she was in Kara’s presence, close enough to touch. Close enough to kiss. She wanted to, but she worried that’d be too forward.

And she didn’t want to spoil whatever was blossoming here.

“Come on,” Lena gestured to the kitchen island. “Pancakes are getting cold.”

“They smell really good.” Kara took a seat on a stool across from Lena.

“Maybe I’ll make them from scratch for you some time.” Lena said.

“I’d like that.” Kara grinned at Lena.

As they started to eat, Lena took a slow breath and said, “Okay. Not hypothetical. But can we talk about something?”

“Sure. Are you okay?”

“Yeah. I mean. No. There’s a world of problems I got breathing down my neck at the moment,” Lena waved that aside, “But what I really want to talk about is us.”

“What about us?”

“I am attracted to you. No theoretical conversation aside. I _am_ attracted to you.”

“Okay. Like I said, that does go both ways. Hypothetical conversations aside.”

“Okay. Cool. Here’s my hang-up. I don’t think I should pursue this.”

Kara looked crushed, immediately, and Lena’s heart fractured into a variety of jagged pieces at Kara’s hurt expression.

“No, Kara, as much as I like you, it remains an inappropriate relationship.”

“But why?”

“Because you’re my employee. And because you’re not in a position to say no without it endangering your job. That came out badly. I’m not gonna fire you if you don’t want to go out with me. I mean, it’s publically inappropriate. Because you work for me.”

Kara tugged at the big red House of El crest on her chest, “This is my job, Lena. I work at L-Corp because I actually kind of like it. Also because the government doesn’t pay a lot and I like where I live. Also because J’onn ordered me to. Please don’t fire me.”

“I’m not going to. But I don’t imagine the government provides a salary to accommodate Kryptonians who provide planetary defense.”

“Oh they do,” Kara said. “It’s a pittance. That’s what Alex called it. A pittance. The Secretary of Defense literally told me, my payment for protecting the world was, I get to live here.”

Lena, piece of pancake halfway to her lips, stared in horror at Kara. “Okay. Um. I’m giving you a raise.”

“No, wait, no, that’s not why I told you that!”

“You can’t stop me, Kara,” Lena grinned.

Kara sputtered and then sorta slumped on her stool. “Okay. I guess?”

“Anyway,” Lena pushed her plate aside, “So long as you work for me, I don’t know that I’m comfortable pursuing a relationship.”

“Well you just gave me a raise and I’m not sure where else I could make that money. So, my quitting so I can date you seems difficult.”

Lena hadn’t realized that. “Oh. I’m sorry.” She was smarter than that. Of course it was an impossible situation she’d just put Kara in. “I am sorry. I shouldn’t have put the responsibility of saying no on your shoulders. That’s literally what I’m trying to avoid.” Lena rubbed at her eyes. She was more exhausted than she’d realized. Could she call in sick without it being detrimental to the company?

“It’s okay,” Kara shrugged and smiled. “Why do you not want to pursue this?”

“It’s kind of complicated.”

“None of tonight has been easy to process,” Kara shrugged.

“That is a point,” Lena nodded. “I try to set a standard. No other CEO behaves the way I do with their staff, and I want to carry that standard over to my inter-personal relations as well.”

“So I can’t ask you out for coffee?” Kara asked.

“No.”

“What about Supergirl. Can she ask you out for coffee?”

Lena hesitated. “Um. Yes. Okay this got complicated in a hurry.”

“Is not asking me out because I work for you a moral standard, or a personal fear?” Kara asked.

Lena opened her mouth to give a fast answer, but hesitated. It was a deep question that cut to the quick of the moment with her. Lena thrummed her fingers over the countertop. “Kara, I’m a female CEO. I’m not an isolated occurrence but I’m a rarity. And I want to set a standard of office safety that doesn’t exist a lot of other places.”

“Where the boss doesn’t sleep with her secretary.” Kara guessed.

Lena slumped. “I didn’t want to put it that bluntly, but yes.”

“Why?”

“Because when I started to take over LuxCorp, back when it _was_ that, I offered jobs to some friends of mine. To help them get out of abusive homes, or out of abusive relationships. I provided means so they could escape. Because my workplace is safe. We don’t put up with abuse. Which is why Kirkland’s every visit is so jarring. He represents all the things I try to make the office safe from.”

“Lena,” Kara got up and walked around to Lena and took her hands. “We can make that work. Okay? I promise. I’ll call Cat. I’ve got a standing job offer there. I’ll be working harder, but that way we have a chance. If you want one. If this is a thing.  I don’t know. Did I presume too much?”

“No,” Lena deflated. “You’re so sweet, Kara.”

“I honestly try.” She said. “Does that help? If I work for Cat, can I, Kara Danvers, ask you out on a date?”

“Yes, absolutely,” Lena relaxed, to the core of her. “Yes.” She felt giddy, excited, the future was an endless possibility of potential with Kara. And Kara’s hands were in Lena’s and they were strong and dry and the touch grounded Lena, and just Kara’s proximity made her feel safe in a way she never had before.

“Kara,” Lena whispered, “May I kiss you?”

“What?” Kara didn’t recoil, but she looked surprised.

“No,” Lena shook her head hard. “No, never mind, I’m sorry, my mind ran away with me and I—“

“I’d say yes, if you asked.” Kara said. Her eyes were big and earnest and she had a little smile.

Lena looked up at Kara. She stood up, into Kara’s space. Lena reached out with her right hand, tipped Kara’s chin gently up, and leaned in. Kara bit her lip, looked from Lena’s eyes to her lips, and then they touched.

It wasn’t electric. Lena saw no sparks, she felt no current. Nothing before prepared her for how this felt.

This was like breathing, like a pure moment of serenity. This was bliss, a moment of pure contentment so intense that she wanted to bottle it and savor it. She did revel in the taste of Kara the insanity of this moment.

This was the release of a breath she’d felt likes she was holding her entire life.

Lena savored it, and leaned into Kara, who stood strong and tall and held Lena upright with ease.

Lena liked not having to be the strongest person in a room.

She pulled back before she lost herself even further.

“Thank you,” She breathed. “I mean that.”

“No,” Kara shook her head. “Thank you.”

In Lena’s bedroom, an alarm clock go off. She had several. If she stood any chance of getting to work on time, she had to set multiple clocks to ensure she kept her tired ass moving throughout the morning.

“I’ll see you at the office, okay?” Kara said. “I’ll need time to clear out my desk and help Alana and Jess take over my workload.”

“Do you get why it was important? Your being able to say no to me without repercussion?” Lena asked. She was still in Kara’s arms and had no intention of leaving. Ever. She didn’t even mind her alarm clock all that much.

“I do,” Kara nodded her head. “Even if we were equals—“

“Which we are,” Lena added with a pinch of Kara’s hip. She was very sturdy.

“It might not look that way to others. And it might be difficult to explain or ensure the workplace dynamic didn’t change. If we replicate behaviors that made offices unsafe elsewhere, then the whole point of your hiring practice is thrown out the window.”

“Yes.” Lena nodded. “That. Exactly.”

“I’ll go back to work with Ms. Grant.”

“I won’t get to see you as much,” Lena pouted.

“I can bring you lunch. And there’s dinners. And I don’t exactly have to go home to my place at the end of the day.”

“All of those things are also true,” Lena grinned. She felt giddy, light on her feet and excited. She didn’t know if it was exhaustion and she’d just gotten extra-punchy, but the night had been a roller coaster of extremes.

There was still the problem of a hundred pounds of kryptonite that’s been stolen. Whatever Kirkland still had planned for the assimilation of her company. But at the moment, none of that mattered.

“Thank you,” Lena said.

“For what?” Kara reached up and brushed some of Lena’s hair out of her eyes.

“You’re good to me,” Lena bit her lip. “You’re my hero, Kara Danvers.”

Kara blushed ferociously, and smiled and looked away. Lena pulled her into a hug and kissed her cheek. “Thank you for being good to me.”

Kara hugged her back. “You’re worth being good to.”

Lena’s second alarm clock went off and both jumped in surprise, and laughed it off. “Okay. I gotta get ready for work. But I don’t want you to leave.” Lena pouted.

“I’ll see you tonight.” Kara grinned, and started to back away towards the big bay windows on the far side of the penthouse.

“You promise?” Lena tried to pout and failed because Kara looked so cute.

“Yeah,” Kara nodded. “Promise.”

Lena tugged Supergirl into her arms again, and kissed her one more time. It was easy and Kara fit so perfectly against Lena. She slid her hands slowly along Kara’s jaw back towards her hair, and knotted her fists there.

Kara let out a little moan and tugged Lena closer to her. Lena responded immediately and pressed the whole of her body flat against Kara’s.

Kara’s mouth was hot on Lena’s, and Kara’s hands shifted up Lena’s back, until Lena felt Kara’s fingers run over her scalp and tug on her hair. Lena gave brief voice to her pleasure.

Kara pulled back, grinning evilly. “Oops. Did I do that?”

“Oh, I’m gonna get you,” Lena whispered.

Kara grinned and they leaned towards each other again, but Lena’s clocks went off once more. “Tonight. Maybe. I’ll see you, that’s for sure.” Lena promised.

“Okay,” Kara pecked Lena on the lips again, and then left in a rush.

Lena stood with an arm across her torso and her thumb rested lightly against her lips.

She let out an appreciative sigh. Today was going to be a good day. 

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> The next chapter follows Kara as she tries to start piecing together the troubling implications of the missing Kryptonite, a conspiracy to hunt her, and corporate espionage.


	12. Kara's Adjustment

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Kara Danvers, tired though she is, goes through the motions of her day giddy and eager to start a new chapter of her life with Lena Luthor. Things immediately go awry.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> There's blood and violence in this one. And ambiguous character fates. be safe all
> 
> follow me @thejollywriter on Tumblr!

Kara Danvers was exhausted, weary to her bones, and yet she had to make conscious effort to keep her feet on the ground. She caught herself, twice, drifting away. Once, just standing in line for coffee near her apartment, and the second time standing in the elevator on the way to the top floor of CatCo.

Kara walked into Cat’s office, carrying coffee. She heard Cat giving orders. Kara had to stop herself noticing that; it’s a normal thing. At the moment, she was talking to James.

“I heard there was as vigilante, yes,” James said. “I didn’t get any good pictures.”

“Why not?” Cat asked. “I literally pay you for that.”

“Because I’m not omniscient, Ms. Grant.”

“Well,” Kara could almost hear Cat roll her eyes. “Get omniscience and get pictures of this vigilante. I want to know if Supergirl is going to have competition.”

Kara hesitated outside Cat’s office. The clear glass door was closed, but Judy, Cat’s door-guard and secretary, waved Kara through without hesitation.

James didn’t have an answer. He only shrugged.

Cat stood up straighter when she saw Kara. Today, Cat wore a razor-sharp white pantsuit with a burgundy blouse and gold bangles on her right wrist.

“Kara,” Cat said, and smiled. “An unexpected surprise.”

“Ms. Grant,” Kara nodded. “Um. I actually came to ask for a favor?”

“James, that’ll be all for now. Find something on that vigilante.”

“Yes, Ms. Grant.”

“I’ll talk to you in a minute,” Kara said to him. “About the, uh, the thing.”

“Sure,” James grinned and left quietly.

When the door was closed, Kara turned back to Cat. Cat asked, “What is this favor you need to ask?”

“When I left, you told me that you had a job for me, should I want it,” Kara said.

“The offer’s always valid for you, Kara,” Cat angled her head and smiled a little. Kara stood a little taller.

“I’d like to take you up on it.”

“Is something wrong at L-Corp?” Cat asked.

“No,” Kara shook her head, “The opposite, actually.”

“I hear a story that you’re not telling.”

“It’s kinda complicated and I’m not sure it’s ready for public consumption? Does that make sense?”

“It certainly does,” Cat leaned back against her expansive white desk. Behind her, a dozen TV screens, layered around each other, showed breaking news from around the world. “I, however, am not the general public, am I?”

“I may be dating Lena Luthor.” Kara burst.

Cat’s eyes widened slowly, until her expression as one of almost comical surprise.

“Well,” Cat touched her hair briefly, and then crossed her arms. Kara held her breath. Cat’s approval meant more to Kara than she could readily admit. Cat taught her so much about being present and accomplished in the world, and when Kara came forward as Supergirl, Cat was there to push her, to hold her up to the ideas she represented. Cat nodded finally and said, “I think you finally found someone at your level.”

Kara exhaled in a gust, “You think so?”

“Certainly,” Cat stood up straight. “Is that why you want your job back? So you’re not dating your boss?”

“Pretty much, yeah.”

“Very well,” Cat said. “I’m low on coffee.”

Kara offered the second cup she carried.

Cat smiled, “Can you tell me anything about the vigilante that was spotted last night?” Cat knew Kara’s secret, which made reporting on Supergirl’s activities difficult. Cat preferred unbiased reporting, and she was merciless when she edited Kara’s reports about Supergirl.

“It’s complicated,” Kara said. “I think you call it an evolving situation.”

“Okay. At the moment, is she a foe of Supergirl?”

“A tentative ally,” Kara said.

“Hmm,” Cat nodded. “Very well. Talk to James about it. He’s lead on this one.”

“I will,” Kara said. “Where should I set up?”

“You’ll find your old desk is vacant,” Cat smiled at Kara. “Welcome back, Kara.”

“Thank you, Ms. Grant.”

Kara bowed her head and left Cat’s office quick as she could.

James was at his desk. He’d gotten a bigger one in the communal reporter area, in a corner, closest to Cat’s office. It was a sign of importance. Kara was across the walkway from him, but still close enough to talk to quietly.

He stood next to his desk and tinkered with his camera. “So?” he asked as Kara set down her own coffee.

“So, I’m back.” Kara shrugged, and stood with her hands laced behind her back in front of James. Kara was exhausted, her eyes itched with tiredness, but she was so comfortable right now. She felt at ease in ways she hadn’t been in months.

“You know,” James looked sideways at her. “I noticed that.”

“I kinda missed this,” Kara looked around. People hustled from one end of the bullpen to the other, carrying tablets and sheaves of paper and all looking frantic and harried.

“Kara!” Cat yelled. “Stop distracting my photojournalist!”

Kara flinched and scurried to her desk, while James dutifully worked on his camera. Once she was seated, he wandered closer to her.

“What brings you back?”

“Long story,” She said. “I’m not sure how to explain it right now.”

“Well, you wanna tell me about it over a game night?”

“Oh hey!” She perked up, “We haven’t had one of those in a while!”

“No we haven’t. Since you started with Ms. Luthor, you’ve been really busy.”

“Lena works really hard.” Kara said. She had a laptop and she booted it up. She’d go by L-Corp on her lunch break to get the rest of her stuff from her desk there.

James nodded, but said nothing further.

 

#

 

Stopping at the bakery to get more cronuts was far calmer today. No sudden trash trucks filled with guys with rocket launchers. Just a long line.

It’d been busy, and there weren’t as many options today as yesterday. Still, Kara got a half dozen traditionally glazed, and then headed over to L-Corp.

A work crew had a huge portion of the front entrance roped off, and everyone moved in and out of the building via the side doors. At the moment, it just looked like they were reinforcing the place the marquee would eventually hang with the new sign.

Kara went inside, rode the elevator to the top floor. She was nervous and excited and so tired she wanted to just curl up on Lena’s big white couch and sleep for days.

Inside Lena’s executive office suite, everyone worked feverishly. Jess stood next to Kara’s old desk, working from the rolodex Kara’d assembled while working for Lena.

“Hey Jess,” Kara said. “Is she busy?”

“Not at this moment,” Jess looked over. She wore a stylish black suit with a pencil skirt and an ivory blouse under her blazer. She looked a little harried, though. “Why’d you have to leave so suddenly?”

“I’m sorry,” Kara meant it. “I didn’t mean to leave you guys in a lurch.”

“When I said I wanted your job,” Jess nudged Kara, “I didn’t mean for you to abandon ship.”

Kara grinned. “Can I go into the office?”

“Just be quiet. She might be on the phone.”

The blinds on the narrow window next to Lena’s door were drawn and Kara couldn’t see inside.

She _could,_ if she exerted herself, but she didn’t want to spy on Lena. Kara went to the heavy, opaque glass door, and eased it aside gently. At first, Kara didn’t spot Lena behind her desk. Kara closed the door silently behind her, and looked—

Lena wasn’t behind her desk. She was on her couch. She had her blazer over her torso like a blanket, and one of the throw pillows under her head. She looked so peaceful, sleeping there like that. The bruise on her lip was concealed well and there was just a small cut to show she’d been in a fight.

Kara put the bag of cronuts on Lena’s desk. Lena mumbled, and shifted in her sleep, and her blazer fell off.

Kara put her purse down on the desk, and went to Lena’s side. She knelt, picked up the blazer, and tucked it around Lena again. She came awake with a start, and Kara pulled back. For one terrified moment, Lena’s eyes were wild and petrified. Then she recognized Kara, and she relaxed, wholly.

“Kara,” Lena mumbled, voice groggy from sleep, and Kara’s heart nearly burst. She wondered if Lena would say her name like that when they woke up together. Kara shook her head to clear it.

“Hey,” Kara said. “I didn’t mean to wake you.”

“It’s okay.” Lena reached up and brushed a thumb over Kara’s cheek. “I needed to get back to work anyway.”

“Are you alright?”

“Fine,” Lena took a deep breath and then sat up, slowly. She was still groggy and looked at Kara without any sort of mask or composure. Just, focused on her with a tired grin and utter devotion.

“You look really cute,” Kara said.

“Thank you,” Lena blushed, and leaned towards Kara. Kara met her half way, and kissed her, gently.

Lena lifted her hands to Kara’s face, and slid her fingers around until her hands were in Kara’s hair. Kara shuddered, she gasped a little.

“You like that?” Lena went from innocent to hungry in a heartbeat and Kara melted. She nodded.

“Good.” Lena bit her lip.

“Not fair.” Kara said and ran a thumb over Lena’s lower lip.

“I know,” She pulled Kara in again and Kara wrapped her arms tight around Lena’s body. Lena leaned back, pulled Kara partially on top of her. Lena wore a pantsuit today, and she opened her legs to draw Kara closer to her.

Kara’s body flushed with heat and eager need and she let her hands wander down Lena’s sides to her hips and then to her thighs, and she moved her hands to Lena’s inner thighs. Lena gasped, a little moan escaped her, and Kara kissed the side of her jaw—

The elevator dinged, and Kirkland boomed, “Where’s Luthor?”

Lena and Kara jerked upright, Kara to her feet and immediately defensive. Lena snapped her fingers, and the lights in her office came up.

Kirkland burst through the door, Jess tried to stop him and failed.

“Where the hell do you get off making me wait?” He yelled. Jess flinched, and Kara wanted to punch him for that reason alone. Outside, everyone was paused, on edge, frozen in anticipation of what Kirkland might do.

There was something uniquely terrifying about a man using his voice as a weapon to cower people. Kara wondered if she could discreetly fling him into the sun.

“I don’t cater to you,” Lena said, easy and off the cuff. “And the more entitled you think you are to my time, the less of it I have for you.” She turned away from him and sauntered back to her desk.

Kara kept a straight face only through sheer force of will.

“You betrayed the safety of your employees. And the board is losing faith in your ability to maintain control of your company.”

“They were paid mercenaries,” Lena said, calm as she could manage.

“The security of your enterprise begins and ends with you,” He said. “And your failure to—“

“Shut up!” She burst. “I am managing my company and I take care of my people and no amount of blusterous bullshit you dump on my desk is gonna change that!”

He stopped, stunned stupid briefly by her response.

“You’re not a big game hunter, George, and L-Corp is _not_ a trophy for your case.”

He reached into his suit, Kara tensed to punch him, and he pulled out a tri-folded stack of papers. “I have an injunction. Agreed to by the board. You will surrender _Lux_ Corp over to me, immediately, because your possession of one hundred pounds of Kryptonite is a direct breach of the Alien Amnesty act. Possessing such quantities of a harmful mineral can be only assumed an action taken with malicious intent. Your company belongs to me.”

He dropped the wad of papers on Lena’s desk and they landed with an ugly thump. He picked up the bag of cronuts and looked inside.

“Ooh,” he said, and reached. Kara yanked the bag out of his hands before he could get one. He glared at her.

Lena picked up the papers, and read them, slowly. She betrayed no emotion. Kara strained, and listened to her heartbeat. It remained calm.

When Lena finished, she laid the papers down, reached into the top file of her desk, and said, “That’s funny, George. The news hasn’t reported the missing Kryptonite. And I doubt the police would’ve questioned you yet.”

“What are you accusing me of?” his heart beat faster.

“Oh, nothing,” Lena pulled out a file from that drawer. “But last night, when I heard of the theft, I did some digging. I know the clause about agreeing to the Alien Amnesty treaty, I was one of the first signers and its most stringent benefactor. Since I helped so much, the Department of Justice felt it owed me some modicum of thanks, since the treaty wouldn’t have been passed without my help.”

Kara remembered that. It was the first time Lena came to her attention, and the first time J’onn became suspicious of her.

“What are you getting at?” George snapped. His heart positively raced now and he sweated profusely. It was ugly to watch.

Lena handed him the file.

“What the hell is this?”

“A couple of things,” Lena said. “Documented proof that I’m not culpable for any anti-alien action taken by the manager of L-Corp before I came into possession and management of it.”

Kara’s jaw fell open a little. It was a golden ticket, a literal get-out-of-jail-free card that said she wasn’t responsible for anything done by Lux Luthor before she took over. “And the facility from which the kryptonite was stolen was commissioned, constructed, and managed by my brother’s trust. I was ignorant to its existence. And I can prove it.”

He began to crumble the file in his hands. He knew he was beaten, this time. He threw it down, Lena flinched, and he stormed out. He yanked her door open so hard that the pneumatic cylinder broke, the door careened into the wall, and fractured. Glass cascaded down to the floor, and Kirkland didn’t even stop.

Everyone flinched but him.

Once he was in the elevator, and out of sight, Lena picked up the phone. “Security? Yes. Until I tell you otherwise, George Kirkland is not allowed inside this building. Do not, under any circumstances, permit him to enter. No, don’t detain him as he leaves, but do not ever allow him to set foot inside this place again. No, that’ll be all.”

She put the phone down. The whole office stared at Lena, the broken door, and looked scared.

Kara seethed with anger.

“Kara, would you please grab the trash can next to your desk?”

“Sure,” Kara had to control herself to not just rush over at superhuman speed. Lena went to the small closet in the corner of her office. It held some spare clothes, and a few other useful things. Including a broom and dust-pan.

Kara came back with the trash can and helped Lena start to clean up. “Why didn’t we make Kirkland do this?” Kara asked.

“Because it would’ve taken Supergirl to break him and I’m not gonna ask her for that kind of favor.” Lena did _not_ look pointedly at Kara. But under her breath, so quietly only Kara could hear her, “I’m going to break him myself.”

“I’ll help.” Kara said.

Lena hesitated, looked up at Kara, and then nodded. “Thank you.”

Together, Kara and Lena cleaned up the destroyed door. It took a minute. Jess found a vacuum and once the glass was swept up, helped vacuum the carpet clean.

The rest of Lena’s staff began to filter away and go back to work, but once the door was cleaned up, Lena said, “Folks? Can I have your attention for a minute?”

Everyone looked to Lena without hesitation.

“I’m sorry for what happened today,” She said. “And yesterday. I knew there were going to be challenges, taking over L-Corp. I had no idea it was going to be this dangerous to you, too.”

She took a slow breath. “I want to make this a safe place for us all to exist. And, in the past few days, I have done an appalling job delivering that. I am, truly, sorry. I’ll be sending a blanket email to the company, any counseling or therapy service you need, I’ll cover. Please don’t hesitate to get whatever help you need.” Lena choked up. “I am truly sorry. I will do better to make sure this remains a safe place, in the future.”

She slumped. “Thank you.” She turned and headed back into her office.

An awful silence hung in the office, though. Kara cringed and wanted to hug Lena but she didn’t know if it was appropriate.

Before she could do anything, however, her phone rang. It was Cat.

“Hello?” Kara hesitated, and then picked up her box from her old desk. Jess sat down, and picked up her own phone.

“You do work for me now, don’t you?” Cat asked. “And yet I look out my office window and who do I not see?”

“I’m sorry,” Kara said, and pushed the call button for the elevator. More quietly, she said, “Some stuff happened at L-Corp.”

Some of Cat’s bravado faded. The elevator dinged, and Kara stepped on in a hurry. “What happened?”

“I’ll tell you later.” Once the doors were closed, Kara slumped. “I just want to punch something right now.”

“Well,” Cat drew the word out. “If you’re going to punch some _one_ , then tell James. Make his deadline easy to meet this week.”

“Yes, ma’am.”

Cat hung up.

Kara sighed. That was a viable option. She just didn’t know who to go punch.

There must be someone in this city that she could blow a little steam on.

 

#

 

Kara, now in uniform and about a mile above National City, listened for something to do. Just. Anything. Cats in trees? Or snakes, that one time. She still didn’t know why the snake went up the tree. She shuddered. Why snakes?

_Surely_ there must be someone who needed saving or punching or _something_! National City’s a big place! And yet, at this moment, everyone seemed to behave themselves.

What would Alex do?

Kara looked out at the horizon. Alex would go to the wrong bar, pick a fight with the biggest guy in the room, beat him stupid, have a drink, and go home to kiss Maggie and curl up on their couch.

Kara considered. There might be something to that philosophy. But it wouldn’t work for Kara because she couldn’t exactly go binging in her uniform, and it’d become evident pretty damn fast that she wasn’t a normal person if she got into a fight in her street clothes.

Even if she acted weak, a guy’s still gonna break his hands on her jaw if he hit her.

Kara pouted. No one could see her pout, but still, she did.

She looked down at the city, and rotated slowly in place where she hovered. She spotted the warehouse where she’d backed up Lena last night during the confrontation with Morgan.

Hey. Why had Morgan been so jumpy last night?

Kara drifted down, and squinted at the warehouse. There was a smaller building opposite the back of the warehouse that had people in it. Three of them were organized in an office and talking. The conversation was vague, at the moment, since she was so high up.

The closer she got, the better she heard. Two people just listened inside the room, while Morgan was on the phone.

“Kryptonite’s expensive,” They said. “And this much requires a lot of security to move.”

On the phone, a male voice Kara couldn’t identify said, “I need to do this subtly! The DEO is breathing down my neck!”

Oh hey why didn’t Kara go visit Alex or Maggie? They might need help!

“Security doesn’t just mean guys with guns,” Morgan said. “It means insurance against assault. In this instance, it means you won’t get jumped delivering your goods.”

The man on the phone considered. “Fine. I’m doing it tomorrow night, at the latest! I need to organize some stuff at the other end.”

“Please do. I’ll keep my ear the ground.”

“Yeah, you do that,” The man on the phone scoffed.

Morgan hung up, and turned to face the two others in the room.

“Get out. Double check _everything_. If the vigilante or Supergirl catch wind of this, things get exponentially more complicated.”

Kara cracked her knuckles, lined up her aim, and then smashed through the roof. She careened into the middle of the room, all three of them screamed in surprise, and she looked around in a rush. The two men Morgan spoke two were armed and both reached for guns instinctively.

Kara picked on up and threw him into the other. Both hit the wall, and collapsed to the floor, unconscious.

She faced Morgan, who twisted, rushed for a brand-new gun case. They ripped it open, grabbed a pistol inside.

Kara rolled her eyes, put her hands on her hips. “Can you just not? The ricochet will—“

The first bullet tore her uniform near her side, the second punched a hole in her chest, and lodged near her spine. She felt the bullet as it staggered her backwards. Morgan stared, wide-eyed, and then lifted the gun to fire again.

Her body felt weaker already, she lost the feeling in her fingertips, but still she glared as hard as she could at the gun, and cut it from their hand. Morgan yelled, and recoiled.

Kara dragged herself to her feet, pain lanced through her body, and she grabbed for Morgan as they tried to run out of the room.

They shook out of her grip, and vanished from sight.

She coughed, saliva speckled her lips and she felt it run down her chin. Her breath came in short, ragged gasps, and she couldn’t calm down.

She dragged her phone from the top of her boots. Dialed Alex.

“Hey you,” Alex’s tone was light. “You still trying to make up to Cat—“

“I’ve been shot,” Kara coughed. Her voice was hoarse and ragged and she coughed again. She covered her mouth with her other hand as she did, and when she looked at it, she realized it wasn’t saliva. It was blood.

“Alex, I got hurt,” Kara cried. “I’m bleeding.”

“Where are you?” Alex tried to force calm on herself and Kara could hear how hard she was working to remain that way.

Kara told her about the warehouse.

“I’m on the way. You’re gonna be okay. I promise, okay? You’re gonna be alright. I’m gonna stay on the phone.”

Kara’s breath came in even shorter gasps. She was lightheaded, her body burned with pain. She knew what these bullets were, and amid the absolute soul-burning terror of her wound, she wondered if the entirety of that hundred pound brick had been converted into this.

Kryptonite bullets.

“Alex,” Kara wheezed. “Alex, I’m scared.”

“I know,” Alex said. Kara could hear the siren overhead. Maggie spoke quietly in the background. Kara wondered if Maggie was driving. She wondered how far away her sister was.

For the first time in a _long_ time she wondered if she might die.

“Alex,” Kara sobbed. “Where are you?”

“I’m coming, honey, we’re on the way.”

She tried to force herself to calm down. If she passed out she didn’t know if she’d wake up again.

She forced herself to exhale and inhale, slowly. That made things worse, every breath she let out, she got a little less air back in the next gasp.

She heard the sirens approaching, not just through the phone.

The sirens grew closer, rapidly closer, and then tires squealed as they came to a stop.

“Supergirl!” Alex yelled.

“Alex,” Kara tried to call, but her voice was faint. “Back of the warehouse,” She said into the phone.

Kara heard running footsteps. Alex burst into the room, cleared it, saw Kara on the floor. It took Alex all of a second to realize what was wrong. She sheathed her gun immediately, and a mask of total concentration descended over her face. She tugged Kara’s cape off, balled it up and put it against Kara’s chest. “Hold this down. Tight as you can.” Alex said.

Kara did as she was told but it hurt, the pressure on her ribs made the pain worse. She whimpered. Alex flinched.

Alex stooped next to Kara, carefully slid her arms under Kara’s legs, and shoulders, and lifted her off the ground. Kara was surprised on a distant and pain-free part of her mind but she was too broken up at the moment to really notice.

“Where’s that medivac?” Alex snapped.

“On the way,” Maggie said, calm as ever. “Thirty seconds out.”

“Close the street,” Alex said to Maggie.

Kara kept her cape pushed against her chest but it hurt, oh Alex, it hurt so much.

Alex set Kara gently down in the street, her torso propped up. Kara whimpered.

“You’ll be okay,” Alex rubbed Kara’s arm. “Right? You’ll be okay.”

Kara’s mind was foggy and each thought felt more sluggish than the last.

“Alex?” Kara mumbled. Her eyes grew foggy and she couldn’t focus on anything. “Alex, where’s Len—“ Kara’s eyes rolled back into her head, and darkness took her.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Next time: Lena picks up the pieces after Supergirl goes down and tries to cope with the terror and pain of that


	13. Lena's Vengeance

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> With Kara Danvers wounded and close to death, Lena Luthor puts on the armor, and goes to work to get even.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> follow me @thejollywriter on Tumblr!

Lena Luthor did not think herself a vengeful person. She wasn’t quick to anger, she worked hard to be even-tempered and calm under any and all situations.  
Lena put her cellphone carefully down on her desk, and then placed both hands flat on the hard, stainless steel surface. She liked the way the desk felt, usually, how sturdy it was, usually. But right now the cold metal leeched her heat and the last thing she wanted was to cool off.  
She took a deliberately slow breath. She closed her eyes, and worked through the thoughts that overwhelmed her.  
Kara was wounded. Badly. Shot with a kryptonite bullet.  
Alex was the one who alerted Lena to Kara’s condition. Lena doubted that it was Alex’s own idea. That was less a malicious jab at Alex and more a practical assessment: Alex’s sister was wounded and bleeding, calling someone who may still be an enemy to her and her sister was not on Alex’s to do list.  
So it was on Kara’s mind. Small comfort though that was, Lena didn’t like what it cost to receive that confirmation.  
She clenched her hands slowly and unclenched them.  
Alex also told her where they’d found Kara. Morgan’s warehouse.  
Lena closed her eyes and leaned back in her office chair. She had no door on her office, and Jess glanced in every once in a while. Despite that, Lena focused internally.  
Her heart was a storm of terror and pain and anguish and uncertainty, and she breathed slowly and deliberately slowed her heartrate. She needed calm. As he calmed, she realized how very tired she was. What she needed, more than anything, was sleep.  
Sleep needed to wait. First things first. Someone attacked Kara with a gun that could wound her. Kryptonite bullets.  
Kryptonite is hard to process. It’s a dense mineral, very hard, course, and it’s not something that wants to take other shapes easily. Dealing with it will be expensive and complicated.  
Well, expensive didn’t exactly stop her from doing anything. She could afford it, probably. That meant that it just being difficult and expensive wasn’t a barrier to entry for someone else motivated to create bullets that could kill a Super.  
How did Morgan get their hands on it? Was it a trade? That seemed most likely. Morgan traded in things they wanted most in exchange for information more often than not. And if the cost of doing business was a favor, like removing a competitor or a gun that shot kryptonite bullets, well.  
So long as the debt was settled to Morgan’s satisfaction, nothing else mattered.  
Lena considered. Was Kirkland in on this? She didn’t know, and at the moment, had too little evidence.  
Morgan was spooked last night when she’d confronted them. It was a complicated moment, too. Was this why? Did Morgan know the kryptonite was going to be taken?  
Almost certainly.  
So what did that leave for Lena to do now? Corner Morgan, if possible. Track the manufacture of the kryptonite ammo.  
That led to another question. Is this a one-off? A box of twenty-five rounds or something for Morgan, and the rest goes into a kind of anti-super nuke to deploy against Kara?  
Lena needed to find out. For that, she needed to go visit Alex and Maggie. They would know the latest. And Lena could help.  
Lena stood up. Her knees shook and her grip was weak when she picked up her phone. She gritted her teeth and tried to shake off the catatonic terror that flowed through her.  
Kara was hurt, and Lena didn’t know what to do to help or protect her!  
She grabbed her purse, and said, “Jess, I’m going home. I need to deal with some personal stuff, okay?”  
“Sure thing Ms. Luthor.” Jess stood as Lena walked past. Just before she got to the elevator, Jess said, “Ma’am?” her voice was scared and stiff and unsure.  
Lena turned. “What’s wrong?”  
“Nothing.” Jess shook her head. “I mean. Um. Do we still have jobs? I know things are really hard right now and you might have to lay people off or something but—“  
Lena fought the impulse to cut her off. That it bothered Jess was evidenced by the deep worry lines etched into her brows and on the sides of her mouth, and Lena let her finish.  
“We’re just worried about what happens next.” Jess’s voice was a ghost of a whisper. There was so much unsaid.  
“Next,” Lena considered, and so many thoughts occurred to her. Next, she goes to check on Kara. Next, she goes to punch the shit out of Morgan for hurting Kara. Next, she absolutely stomps on Kirkland’s balls and obliterates him until the end of time. Next—!  
Lena took a slow breath and forced calm on her thoughts. “No. I won’t lay anyone off. I’ll pay you out of my own pocket before I let that fuckwad force roll-backs on this company.”  
Some of the tension eased out of the room, and Lena stepped back towards them. Everyone was on their feet now. She said, “I know it’s scary. I know he’s scary. He’s entitled and loud and mean and that’s absolutely terrifying to contend with. He has no power here. His claim to our company is imagined. And he can have my office over my cold dead body.” Lena took a slow breath. That wasn’t as reassuring as she’d hoped it would be and she didn’t like saying it. She shook her head. “Long as I have anything, that turns a buck, you have a job. All of you. I told you this was a safe place when I offered you a job. It still is. I promise you that.”  
There were a few nods and more of the tension bled from the room. Fear is a terrible thing that spreads between people at lightning speed and takes great strength and devoted energy to dispel.  
But once there’s an outlet for that fear, once it’s assuaged, once there’s some calm, fear vanishes in a hurry. It has no power over union, over protection, over commitment.  
“You’re my people,” Lena added. “I’ll do everything in my power to protect you.”  
A few of them nodded.  
Lena walked to the elevator, and descended to the basement.  
Cynthia was reading a magazine when the doors pulled back. “Ms. Luthor!” She said. “How was your night?”  
“Productive.” Lena walked to the counter. “I’m tinkering with the gear in my private lab. Ish. It’s a work bench in the corner of my apartment. But I had a question about something else that may have been in Lex’s stores.”  
“Sure thing. What’s up?”  
“Do you think he would’ve had something to detect refined particulates of kryptonite?”  
“Potentially,” She said. Her brows pulled together. “Why?”  
“That’s complicated.” Lena sighed.  
“I can peruse the private archives, if you like. But nothing springs immediately to mind.”  
“If you can just put some thought into it. That’s all I ask.” Lena’s tone was sharper than she anticipated.  
“Ma’am, what’s going on?” Cynthia asked. “It’s not my place to ask, but—“  
“No, it’s not,” Lena said, and then caught herself. “I am, so sorry. I did not mean to snap at you.”  
Cynthia looked at her coldly. “I don’t know what kind of pressure you’re under right now, but if you were coal, you’d be turning into a diamond.”  
Lena laughed, despite herself. Cynthia softened. “You’ve got a point,” Lena said. “Things are not good, right now.”  
“What’s going on?”  
Lena hesitated, and then told her. An abridged version. “My girlfriend was hurt, badly, someone stole a hundred pounds of kryptonite from me that I didn’t know I had, and Kirkland is trying to usurp me.”  
“I heard about the kryptonite last night,” Cynthia said.  
“How?”  
“Police scanners.”  
“They wouldn’t broadcast that.” Lena said.  
“Code ten eleven oh one. Alien artifacts missing. They reported the address, and I looked it up.”  
“Why?”  
“For fun.” Cynthia said. “Kind of a hobby.”  
“Ham radio?”  
“Sorta,” Cynthia smiled but didn’t elaborate.  
“Well,” Lena urged. “Did you pick up anything else?”  
“The site where it happened was leased thirty-nine years ago, by Lux Luthor. Approximately nineteen shell corporations between that fact, and the current owner.”  
“Why so many layers of secrecy?”  
“It’s not my place to speculate, ma’am.”  
“Your insight has proved invaluable. Please continue.” Lena meant it.  
Cynthia beamed at Lena, proud as punch, “Well. Fear and hatred of Supers didn’t exactly start with your brother. And there’s been evidence of super-powered folk on earth for a very long time. Around the time of the building’s incorporation, near as I can tell, Lux was on an alien artifact binge. Everything he bought was kept there.”  
“How do you know that?”  
“Because the address looked familiar. And catalogue receipts were kept in your brothers’ archives. That’s why I recognized it. I’d read that address when I helped archive everything once we got it back from the Feds.”  
“How did the Feds miss a hundred pounds of kryptonite laying around?”  
“Ma’am, given the fiasco of your brothers’ arrest, it would not be a stretch of imagination that they were less than thorough in going through it all.”  
“To get it out of the public’s attention as fast as possible.”  
“Right,” Cynthia said. “There was a lot of government support for Lex’s actions. And it was an election year. Those turncoats needed re-electing, and if there was this anti-Superman stink hanging over Lex’s congressional supporters? Well. Hard to get re-elected when your platform is about killing the Man of Steel.”  
Lena nodded. “I can understand that. Is there anything I can do to pay you for this information?”  
“I could use more lights.” Cynthia said.  
“Pardon?”  
“The ambiance is cool and spooky,” Cynthia gestured around. “But it’s still creepy as fuck down here.”  
Lena kicked herself mentally for not realizing it sooner, and then said, “Would you like work-stands? Or proper overhead fixtures?”  
“Work stands will be fine. I can tether them all to a single switch so it’s, you know what? You don’t care about that. I can figure it out.”  
“I’ll get you those lights, soon as I can.”  
“Thank you, Ms. Luthor.” Cynthia bowed her head to Lena. Lena smiled.  
As she walked back to the elevator, Cynthia said to Lena, “And good luck.”  
A lot went unsaid in that sentence.  
Lena rode back to the surface. 

#

The warehouse where Morgan kept shop didn’t look outwardly out of place. No one was here, guards or otherwise. When she got close to the door, Lena noticed the hole in the roof.  
Kara must’ve done that. A subtle entrance, indeed.  
Lena pulled a flashlight from her backpack, and stepped into the room. She’d changed, in the limo. After last night, she’d put a change of clothes in the back. Jeans, a comfy sweater, a black leather jacket, and flat, well-worn Chucks. Comfortable clothes that wouldn't stand out down here.  
And then she’d gotten herself dropped off at her penthouse so she could take her private car.  
From there, it was a straight shot back to Morgan’s warehouse, and potentially, some answers.  
Lena shone the flashlight slowly around the room. The sun was still up, for a while yet, but when Kara’d crashed into the room, she’d crashed through the lights overhead. It was dark, except for little bit of regular light that seeped into the space.  
She swung the light around to the right, and flinched. Two men, still unconscious, were on top of each other in a heap in the corner.  
Kara’s work.  
She dragged the beam away from them to the floor, and Lena became very still.  
A sticky, crimson pool of dried blood was on that floor.  
Kara’s blood.  
Lena tucked the flashlight under her arm, and pulled rubber gloves from her pocket. Those hadn’t been in the clothes changing bag, but had been in the backpack she’d kept in the Charger.  
Lena shone the light on the light around the rest of the room. The whole office was covered in a fine layer of dust, probably from the damage Kara’d inflicted on the office when she’d dropped in.  
But on the desk were spatters of blood, from when she’d been shot.  
Lena walked around to the side of the desk, and stuck her right hand out, like a gun. The spatter suggested that Kara was close.  
She chided Kara mentally for not being more careful, but then stopped herself.  
What reason did Kara have to assume these bullets would do anything more to her than any other bullet ever had?  
She had no reason to assume these bullets could genuinely wound her. Lena doubted there had been tell, something that’d given it away.  
Lena turned, shone the flashlight around the rest of the office. There was a scorch mark on the wall. The lines were deep, the heat distribution that cut them was even. Lasers.  
One of Kara’s other abilities.  
On the ground, in two pieces, was a gun. A thick bodied revolver, cut into two pieces, not evenly. The cylinder was split, too, and only one bullet remained intact.  
Lena pulled a thick gallon baggie from her backpack and put the pieces of the revolver into it, along with the sliced shell casings, and some of the fragments from the floor. They were pale green, and didn’t look like traditional debris from the punched-in roof.  
The baggie she put into her backpack again, and continued her search. There was an open gun case on the counter behind Morgan’s desk. Inside were two rows of ammunition, six rounds to a row.  
Lena took all the ammo, and put that into a separate baggie.  
She sniffed. She smelt burned flesh. It was a sickly scent, not like steak, but like spoiled and charred meat. It churned her stomach.  
But that wasn’t the result of Kara being wounded, was it?  
She looked at the floor again, from where she’d picked up the revolver. There were papers scattered about. Not many. She lifted them up, looked around.  
She recoiled, dropped the papers, and took a minute to calm down before she lost her lunch.  
She’d found a finger and a knuckle, the wounds burned from where Kara’s lasers cut the finger and knuckle apart.  
So Morgan was wounded. There wasn’t much blood, and Lena realized that the heat from the laser would’ve potentially cauterized the wounds if it’d been swift enough.  
That was significant. Morgan was wounded, potentially bad. They’d be worried, and want medical attention as soon as possible.  
Lena stood up. She doubted Morgan would visit a traditional hospital.  
She called Alex back.  
“Where are you?”  
“I’m where Kara was shot,” the words felt awful in her mouth and Lena shuddered when she said it. “Can I talk to Maggie, please?”  
“Why?”  
“I think I may have a lead.”  
Alex scoffed, there was some shuffling over the phone, and then dubiously, Maggie asked, “Hello?”  
“Detective Sawyer? I don’t know if we’ve been properly introduced.”  
“You can call me Maggie, Ms. Luthor.”  
“Then you call me Lena.”  
“Okay. Lena. What can I help you with?”  
“You know any underground clinics? If someone got hurt, bad, and needed it looked at. If the wound might have been caused by an extra-terrestrial, I mean.”  
“Did Kara wound the guy who shot her?”  
“She did,” Lena said. “Lopped off a finger and a knuckle.”  
“At the warehouse?”  
“The very same.” Lena began to pace, and she longed to be quits of this place. She couldn’t stop staring at the puddle of blood.  
“I’ll send a forensics team to sort the place out.”  
“I’ll be by shortly with some evidence, I just need to know if there’s a clinic the shooter would go to?”  
“Sure. North side of the city, near Hampton Rhodes. Place looks like an abandoned furniture store. If you go around the back, there’s a service entrance that leads to the clinic.”  
“Thank you.” Lena said. “I mean it. I’m grateful.”  
“Don’t go in without back up, okay? You’re clever, but this is actual police work we’re dealing with now.”  
Lena released that Maggie already knew about her vigilante secret. It came up last night, probably, when the kryptonite went missing.  
“With all due respect, Detective,” Lena made a point of referencing the badge. “I have less than no interest in doing this by the book.”  
“I didn’t hear that,” Maggie said, but she didn’t sound steamed. She wondered how often Alex went off the reservation like this.  
Lena took back every foul thought she’d ever had about Alex.  
“I’ll bring him in alive. That much I will try to do.”  
“Aw gee,” Maggie mocked. “You’re just spoiling me today.”  
“Thank you, Detective.”  
“Uh-huh. Don’t burn my city down.”  
“I’ll try not to.” Lena hung up and went back to her car. She needed a discreet place to get into her armor.  
She needed to go knock on doors. 

#

By the time she’d gotten into her armor, gotten the bow, quiver, and gotten uptown, the sun was well down and night was in full swing. Including the weird 8-pm rush that never seemed to make sense to Lena.  
At least, in her dark car, the armor just looked like a bulky suit.  
She parked in a deserted alley and armed the security measures on the car. Not much, just a very loud alarm, and pepper spray, in case someone tried to force the locks. And only if. Lena didn’t want some clumsy gawker getting pepper sprayed because they bumped her old car.  
She got out, put the helm on, and grabbed the bow.  
Using the alley, she used the grappling arrow to make her way to the top of the three story building, and then used the same arrow to cross the four blocks to her target.  
She stood on top of a building across the street from the clinic. There were two guards at the back. Both were armed but neither kept their hands on their guns. She could see them, though, clear as day.  
A black market clinic indeed.  
The storefront was empty, though. The place looked abandoned. Boarded up and locked down.  
Lena cracked her knuckles, aimed at the radio tower behind the store, and fired. The arrow latched against the side, and drew taught. She backed up, and then raced at the side. She activated the recall function, and cleared the street in a single bound. She released the arrow from its anchoring point on the tower as she cleared the lip of the store’s building, and it recalled into her hand as she dropped. She landed hard on the rough gravel on the roof, rolled off her momentum, and slid to a stop.  
She stuffed that arrow back into the quiver and rushed to the edge of the roof. The guards below didn’t seem to have noticed her arrival.  
Good.  
Maybe she didn’t need to go through the back door then, either.  
Fuck it. Time to work.  
She pulled the grapple arrow (she used that a lot, she realized), anchored it to the roof, connected the cable to a carabiner on her belt, pulled a regular arrow from her quiver, and then leapt off the roof.  
The cable slowed her descend and as she dropped, she shot the farthest guard in the upper chest. He spun around and went down. She hit the second guard in the back, just below the shoulder blades, and he collapsed too, moaning in pain.  
She recalled her grapple arrow, stored it, and kicked both guards into unconsciousness.  
She ripped the door open, pulled a blunt arrow so that the next person she shot wouldn’t die, but would certainly have their bell rung.  
That’s the thing about black market hospitals. It’s less about proper medical care, and more about removing bullets, no questions asked, or picking up your latest oxy fix.  
Through the door she went. The corridor beyond was lit with a single track of lighting in the center of the ceiling, with dark corridors off to the other sides. Mattresses were stacked sideways against one wall.  
A guard stood up from a chair down the hall, and called out, “Hey!”  
She fired the arrow, it punched him in the forehead and he collapsed, unconscious.  
She picked the arrow up as she passed, and swept the corners as she moved down the hallway. She heard activity near the back of the clinic.  
Another guard stepped into sight, small assault rifle raised.  
She fired before he lifted his gun, the arrow struck him in the temple and he collapsed in a heap with a grunt.  
She retried the arrow once again, and held it between two fingers of her bow-hand. As she approached the actual operating rooms, she pulled a sharp barbed arrow from the quiver.  
She eased through the door, into the room where most of the activity seemed to be. A bright light shone down on Morgan, who had their hand rested on a stainless steel tray. A surgeon examined it with magnifying glasses.  
“Step away,” Lena ordered.  
The surgeon looked up, shocked, a nurse to the left grabbed a scalpel and ran at Lena but Lena put an arrow in his shoulder and it threw him down. He yelled in pain.  
“Take your nurse and leave,” Lena said. “Do not do anything else.”  
“We’re going,” the surgeon reached down for their nurse, considered the scalpel, and Lena shot him in the back with the blunt arrow. They both lay on the ground, writhing in pain.  
Lena slung the bow to her back, grabbed them both by their scrubs, and dragged them bodily from the room. Once she returned, she locked the door behind her, and checked the narrower door on the far side of the room.  
It led down a cluttered hallway to an exterior door. She could see the lock from here. She fired one arrow into it, which broke the lock, and then left that door ajar.  
“Morgan,” Lena said. “You’ve rather irritated me.”  
“I was attacked,” They said. “And you got no right to corner me here.”  
“Why did you attack Supergirl?”  
“High-powered freak corners me in my own office, crashes through my ceiling? You think I’m gonna react to that politely?”  
“I thought you were more level headed than to just start shooting at a bulletproof superhero.”  
Morgan laughed, “Not so bullet proof now.”  
Lena snatched a barbed arrow from her quiver and drew it back fully.  
“Wait!” Morgan held up their non-wounded hand. The cut up one lay on the stainless steel tray. Blood dripped from small tears in the cauterized flesh. “Look, with all that kryptonite missing, I panicked, okay? I got my delivery and I freaked out because I didn’t know if she was gonna throw me around or not, okay? I panicked!”  
“Until you shot her, she had no reason to do anything but talk to you.” Lena said. “Why did you try and kill her?”  
“Because someone’s gonna make a real run at Supergirl.”  
“What, like it’s never been done?” Lena asked. She released the tension on the bow slowly.  
“No,” Morgan shook their head. They looked disheveled and uncomfortable. “You know how many bullets you can make out of one hundred pounds of kryptonite? Each bullet’s less than four hundred grains in weight.”  
Lena thrummed her fingers on her bowstring. This was far more terrifying than she’d originally imagined.  
“They’re refining it right now. By the end of the weak, they’ll put automatic weapons firing kryptonite bullets in the hands of every goon in National City.”  
“This isn’t Gotham,” Lena said. “Our criminal element isn’t that intense.”  
“Not in the same way. Ours runs deeper. It’s more cultured, more entrenched, and more expert than Gotham’s. There’s no subtlety in Gotham, no artistry, crime and criminality is right on the surface of everything.”  
“I don’t need snobbish bullshit, Morgan, I need to know who has the kryptonite.”  
“I’m not telling you.”  
She drew the bow back again and aimed at their head.  
“You’re not gonna murder me.”  
“Oh really? You really think I won’t?” she asked with such conviction that Morgan doubted themselves.  
“If you’re really Supergirl’s partner, you wouldn’t kill me. That’s not her style.”  
Lena smiled. “Well, Supergirl ain’t here, is she?”  
Morgan’s lip began to tremble, “I don’t know who’s organizing this, okay? I swear it.”  
The worst part was, Lena figured they were being truthful. She didn’t know why, though, and it bugged her.  
“How did this start?”  
“I can’t say for certain. I just heard that MacNamara and Volkov took a distinct interest in anti-alien activities four weeks ago. And they started buying up resources. Right after that, they called a temporary truce between their families.”  
“What would they buy that they didn’t already have or have access to?” She asked while her brain still reeled from the fact that MacNamara and Volkov made peace.  
“Specialists. These past few weeks, I’ve been more useful as far as introductions are concerned than genuine information.”  
“Introductions to whom?”  
“Specialists! I told you that! Safe crackers and second-story guys, and—“ Morgan started to stutter and worked a long moment to calm themselves down. Lena pondered while they did.  
“Is this a war?” She asked. “Are the gangs in war-lockdown?”  
“Yes.”  
“Where are the bosses hiding?”  
“I won’t tell you that.”  
“My debt to you is settled but I promise if you don’t help me right goddamn now I will see to it that you do not leave this clinic alive.” She didn’t mean to kill Morgan, but they stayed in business because they were objective. They sold wholly to everyone. If it came to light that Morgan picked a side, then their utility to everyone else vanishes.  
Morgan shuddered. “They’re upstate. In the desert. They’re both holed up together.”  
That was oddness in itself.  
“I need the address.”  
“No.”  
“Really Morgan?” Lena sighed. There was shouting in the outside hallway, and Lena lunged forward, and pressed the sharp edge of the arrow against Morgan’s throat. “Where?”  
Morgan screamed, and she pushed harder, and when Morgan gagged, they told her.  
“Are you lying?”  
“No!” Morgan sobbed, “Please, don’t kill me.”  
Lena pushed a little harder, drew blood, and then retreated down the hallway she’d exposed earlier.  
She bolted, burst through the back door, and was gone before they’d broken into the operating center.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Next time: Lena teams up with an unlikely ally to make a run at the congregated forces trying to kill Supergirl


	14. Step Lightly, Lena

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Lena sneaks into a safehouse to try and find out where the Kryptonite went. There, she makes a revelation that tilts her world even further sideways.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I'm sorry this took so long to get back to. I promise I'm not dead, despite the universe's best attempts.

Lena Luthor rubbed her eyes, and stared through the window into the containment area. Behind that glass was Kara Danvers. She was under a white sheet, her body was exceptionally pale, the light that shone down on her made her seem ghostly and insubstantial.

Two surgeons in white scrubs continued to work on her. Lena couldn’t see most of what they did. She just wished they hadn’t used white sheets.

Kara’s red blood stood out in such an ugly sharp contrast.

Alex stood next to Lena. No one else was in the waiting area with them. They’d stood there for an hour, next to each other, arms crossed and nervous energy coming off them both in waves, and neither said anything.

Lena didn’t know if there was much _to_ say. Both were there for the same reason.

Maggie came and went once, to bring Alex a cup of coffee. Alex held it, but did not drink it. The coffee was long cold.

Lena didn’t want to look away from the window. She was transfixed and terrified. The most important person in her life was on that operating table and Lena’s mind was full of every conceivable consequence that’d come from looking away.

It was irrational, Lena knew that to the core of her, but it did not stop her being utterly, and wholly, terrified.

She didn’t want to leave Kara alone. She knew Kara had no idea Lena was out here. But she didn’t want to leave her alone, just the same.

“When Kara called me,” Alex said, her voice unsteady, “My first thought was that you’d led her into something awful.”

Lena said nothing. She deflated. This wasn’t the time to make peace with Alex and she had no idea how to anyway.

Lena didn’t know what to do.

No, wait, that wasn’t quite accurate. She _knew_ what she had to do. But she didn’t want to abandon Kara. She was Lena’s first friend since she was a little girl, the first person who’d seen past the Luthor name and given her a real chance to be something _more_ than someone making up for the mistakes of her kin.

Lena _owed_ Kara in a primal kind of way. Whether Kara knew it or not, Lena’s debt to her was blood-deep.

But even that was spinning the real truth. Lena chastised herself. Lena hadn’t opened her heart to anyone the way she’d opened up to Kara.

She looked down at her feet. Shuffled side to side. It was wrong, Kara was hurt so bad, and Lena was upset because she feared losing her only friend.

She took a deep breath. And faced Alex.

“What?” Alex asked without turning.

“I have a lead.”

“Good for you.”

“I need backup.”

“Call your company. I’m sure you can hire muscle.”

“It involves the gang leaders. They took the first shipment of Kryptonite bullets.” Lena said.

Alex clenched her teeth. She started to pace, and deliberately didn’t look at her sister.

“I don’t want to manipulate you,” Lena said. “I mean it when I say I want your help.”

“Why? You hate me. And it’s mutual.”

“Do you trust her judgement?” Lena gestured to the prone and unconscious Kara.

“That’s not fair,” Alex hissed.

“Yes or no question, Alex.”

“I do,” Alex faced Lena. “But it doesn’t mean I agree with what she’s doing! I sure as shit don’t agree that supporting you is a good idea.”

“You know I didn’t take the kryptonite,” Lena said. “What do I have to do to prove I want to help?”

Alex said nothing, faced away from Lena. After a long, ugly moment of silence, Lena continued, “Look. I understand how deep your fear of me goes. I get that you’re being the big sister to the invulnerable girl, who, against all logic, ran at the one person who could hurt her.” Lena spoke quietly and tried to sound calm while she did.

Alex’s shoulders slumped.

“There is nothing in my life that I want more than for her to sit up and come through that door and be okay,” Lena whispered. She couldn’t find the volume to be any louder. “And I would trade anything for it.”

Alex turned, slowly, and faced Lena.

“How good an actress are you.”

“Shitty,” Lena said. “My poker face is unbeatable, though.”

Alex clenched and unclenched her hand. “Where are you going?”

“An estate on the east side of the state. That’s where the families are holed up.”

Alex nodded. “Tell me everything you know.”

So Lena did. She laid it all out. When she was done, Alex said, “I still don’t know who’s pulling the strings. All the things we’re chasing, they feel like treating symptoms. Not causes.”

Lena nodded, “That’s why I want to hit the bosses. They won’t be given cookie-cutter answers. That’s for damn sure. They’ll know what’s going on. A big picture, anyway.”

“Perhaps.” Alex nodded. “This doesn’t mean I like you.”

“I wouldn’t dream of it,” Lena said. “You drive, or I do.”

“I do,” Alex glared, but she didn’t mean it cruelly. Lena shrugged.

They both looked at Kara’s horizontal form one more time, and hesitated. Lena clenched her teeth, and gave Alex a moment alone before they went downrange.

This was not a particularly intelligent idea she had.

 

#

 

Lena noted, several hours later, that if she ever needed to figure out what to get Alex for a birthday or Christmas, just buy her a gun of some sort.

They stood at the back of the blacked-out DEO SUV in the far hills of California. National City was far off in the distance. And, two miles away, was the summer home of National City Gang lord Vladimir Volkov. Currently shared with Patrick MacNamara.

To surveil the perimeter and keep an eye on things, Alex picked up a sniper rifle that was almost as big as she was.

Lena almost offered to help Alex carry it, except Alex draped the heavy strap across her torso and managed it well by herself.

“Are you okay with me going in by myself?”

“I’ll keep an eye on you,” Lena said. “Thermal scope. Among other things.”

Lena had an idea, but she asked anyway, “What’s the caliber of that?”

“Fifty, BMG.”

“Shit.” Lena looked away and started to walk towards the hilltop.

“What’s the matter Luthor?” Alex asked. “Afraid you’ll catch seven hundred and fifty grains of resentment in your backside?”

“I wasn’t until you phrased it that way,” Lena squeaked.

Alex laughed, light and easy. “Nah, I won’t shoot you in the back.”

“Thank you.”

“It’ll irritate Kara.”

“It would, yes,” Lena agreed and started to walk away.

“I’ll make sure you’re facing me first, instead.”

Lena stopped and looked at the sky as a kind of prayer. “You’re gonna be this way all night, aren’t you?”

“Undoubtedly,” Alex said. “You’re burning moonlight.”

Because of traffic, and the sheer length of the journey, it was already just past sundown when they’d reached the hills where the estate was.

There was still light in the sky, but not for long. There were no clouds, and the moon began to rise over the hills behind Alex and Lena.

Lena shrugged the bow off her back, and tugged at the string. There were scratches in the line, burrs she caught with her fingers. She made a mental note to replace the bowstring when she was done tonight.

If she got through tonight.

It was a long shot to begin with, and she was infiltrating a fortress.

She slid her fingers over the arrows in her quiver, heard a brief inventory as the sensor in her index finger lined up with the RFID tags in the quills.

She had enough to get the job done. She hoped.

“What’s the matter, Luthor?” Alex asked. “Nervous?”

“No more than you are.”

Alex huffed.

Lena flexed her hand on the grip of her bow. She stalled and she knew it but it didn’t make it any easier to make her run.

“Okay,” Lena walked away. “Scout the place with your pea-shooter. I’ll keep an eye on the ground ahead.”

“Be careful,” Alex said. “Or someone might think we have a plan to deal with this.”

“Heaven forbid,” Lena smirked.

She descended the rocky hill ahead of her. Her boots slid across the uneven ground, stirred loose dirt.

It was half a mile from Alex’s hilltop to the mansion’s hilltop. But the space between them was more than a mile, down and back up again. Across rough, uneven ground.

Lena wondered how many times she’d twist her ankle trying to get there. She couldn’t see well, and despite having her cowl, with night vision features, it was still too bright in the sky. It was that weird, irritating transition where the night vision goggles augmented too much of the light in the sky, and yet her ordinary eyes couldn’t pick out enough to walk with ease.

It was irritating bullshit and she chastised herself for not making her goggles with variable sensitivity to light.

She made it, though. A bit at a time, she made it up to the other side. As she climbed, she slung her bow to her back, and used both hands for leverage up between the boulders.

“Okay,” Alex said, in a quiet, bored drawl. “Quite a few guys on the exterior. But so far? I see no one inside.”

Lena paused. “What’s that mean?”

“Either the place is shielded somehow, or no one’s inside.”

Lena thrummed her fingers on the boulder she’d stopped next to. Had Morgan led her into a trap? Possible, for sure, except it relied on too many variables. Lena would’ve had to have been predictable for the past day.

Lena considered.

No. If it _was_ a trap, it was a trap set for someone else.

“Alex, where’s the SUV?”

“Off the side of the road. Out of sight from the hilltop.”

“Can it be seen from the road?”

“Potentially.”

“Can you move it easily so it can’t be?”

Alex was quiet for a moment, “That’ll leave you vulnerable.”

Lena didn’t know what to read into that observation. “I’ll be okay.”

“Why you need the truck moved?”

“I think it’s a trap, but not for us.”

Alex considered, “You want to see who steps into the trap.”

“Bingo.”

“Alright. Hold tight.”

“I’m gonna keep climbing. Don’t worry, I’ll keep an eye out.”

“Be careful, okay? Kara’s judgment must be compromised to like you, but all the same, I don’t want to be the one to tell her you got your dumb ass killed.”

“Your sisterly love is admirable, Danvers.”

“Only my girlfriend gets to snark at me with that tone of familiarity.” Alex smirked. “Not that I’m offering! I’m not sharing Maggie. You already got my sister. Don’t be greedy.”

“Rest easy,” Lena looked back towards Alex. “I’m not hitting on your girlfriend.”

“Good. Because she’s mine. I mean. Not _mine_ mine but mine.”

“She’s in a committed relationship with you, yes, despite all factual evidence pointing towards that being detrimental to her health and mental integrity.”

Alex was quiet for a long moment, “Damn that was harsh.”

“Sorry.”

“Don’t apologize, fucking teach me how you did that.”

Lena looked at her hands. “Defense mechanism growing up where I did.”

Alex hesitated, “What did they do to you, Luthor?”

Too many memories blitzed through Lena’s head. She was a pawn, something Lionel, Lillian, and even Lex on occasion, played against the others. No one wanted Lena in any meaningful way. Certainly not as a daughter. She was a tool of coercion for the rest of the family.

“Lex came by his maniacal manipulative tendencies honestly, I think. That’s all I’m willing to share about it.”

“Well,” Alex exerted herself. “Sounds tragic. Sorry it happened.” She wasn’t snarky, though. It was an offhanded comment to be sure. But not a mean one.

“It’s alright,” Lena said. “But I realized recently that I accept a lot of shitty things I really shouldn’t.”

“Why do you put up with it then?”

“Because it led me to your sister,” Lena continued to climb. “And sappy or not, she’s worth everything.”

Alex sighed, “Shit.”

“What?”

“I may respect you yet, Lena.”

“Oh hey now,” Lena looked back towards Alex, “Don’t go soft on me now.”

Alex chuckled. “You ought to know. There’s a guy with a shotgun above you.”

Lena looked up. She could see his silhouette above her.

“Must I do everything?” Lena whispered. She pulled her bow and a blunt arrow. She fired up into him, caught him in the jaw. He recoiled backwards and fell in an unconscious slump. She scaled the rockface just below the railing rapidly, and leapt over the top. The blunt arrow fell a few feet away where it’d twisted and recoiled once it hit him. She collected it, notched it against the bow again.

“Four behind, six ahead,” Alex said.

“Let’s go backwards then.”

Lena turned around.

“Guard above,” Alex said. “Back to you. Guard ahead, around the corner.”

At the top of the short cliff-face, she stood on the hardwood porch. Glass railings with stainless steel grips ran along the side, and kept people from falling into the canyon.

Lena lifted her bow. Instinct drove her, and she kept herself close to the wall.

The mansion itself was white-walled, and dusty from blown sand. But the dust was only noticeable from up close.

Her footsteps were silent as she padded lightly along the walkway.

She stopped.

“There’s no one—“ Alex began.

Ahead of her, the door opened, and a guard stepped out. He had his back to Lena as he pulled the door closed behind him. She backed up two steps rapidly, and fired, point blank, into the base of his neck with a half-charged shot.

A fully charged shot would’ve killed him.

As it is, she wondered if his neck would ever work properly.

She caught him by his collar as he collapsed.

“So the house _is_ shielded,” Alex realized.

“I’m going in here. Can you deal with interlopers quietly?”

“If I must.”

“Wait, that gun is suppressed?”

“The wonders of modern technology,” Alex said. “Yes, you can suppress a fifty caliber sniper rifle. Just.”

“That’s scary.”

“I know,” Alex sounded altogether too enthused by her gun.

Lena decided to let her peruse the defense weapons section of L-Corp. Surely that’d get her on Lena’s side.

She touched the knob, twisted. The door opened, and she slipped inside.

The sitting room was decorated with two couches in an L shape in front of an enormous TV, with folding end-tables at either end. There were soft ambient lights in the ceiling. It didn’t offer a lot of illumination, but enough to get around without stubbing your toe.

Lena wiped her boots off on the entry-rug so that she didn’t track sand and dust through the house.

It wasn’t that she was considerate: she didn’t want to leave a deliberate trial to follow.

She slung her bow to her back, pulled the heartbeat detection arrow from the quiver, and brought up her phone. Not exactly an ideal way to move through the house, but with early warning, she could evade, or if spooked, use the detection arrow to shoot whomever spooked her.

That would upset Kara.

Lena tried not to think about her.

In a narrow hallway further into the house, she heard footsteps overhead. She froze, looked at the screen of her phone, and then looked up. The steps echoed through the floor and tapped along towards a set of stairs ahead of her.

She shoved the phone into her pocket, the heartbeat arrow back into the quiver, came up with a blunt one, and drew her bow as fast as she could.

By the time she finished all that, the footsteps were at the bottom of the stairs. A tall man with broad shoulders turned the corner, spotted her, his eyes went wide, and she shot him in the forehead with a half-charged shot.

As he collapsed, Lena rushed forward, caught him by the collar, and laid him down gently.

She picked up the blunt arrow, twirled it through her fingers while she briefly considered; there was utility to going through the house with the tracking arrow. There was more common sense in having a blunt arrow knocked already, and using her eyes and ears to see what was what.

She laid the arrow on the shelf of the bow, knocked it, and continued onwards, deeper into the house.

“Alex, do you copy?”

“I do,” Alex said. “You got spooked.”

Lena blushed, grateful Alex couldn’t see her face that way. “Yeah. That happened. Can you see anything?”

“Not really. You’re just a vague shadow.”

“Is the house shielded somehow?”

“I am starting to think it might be,” Alex said. “But the person with x-ray eyeballs isn’t here right now. So I’m only guessing.”

The tone was light but the stress was real.

“She’ll wake up,” Lena said. “I know she will.”

“I know,” Alex sounded scared. She tried to cover it. But Lena heard it anyway.

She decided to ignore it. She wasn’t close enough to Alex to be able to call her out on covering her fear with bravado.

She knelt next to the guard and searched him. She wanted to know why she couldn’t detect his heartbeat. She tore his button down shirt open and found a vest. It was made of dense material but slightly flexible. Not a bullet proof vest, those are more rigid.

“Alex,” Lena said. “Why would these guards be wearing lead-lined vests?” Lena unrolled the tag at the edge of the vest, and looked at the materials listed in the composition disclaimer.

“To protect from radiation exposure?” Alex guessed. “We have lead-lined hazmat suits at the DEO.”

Lena thrummed her fingers on the tag. “That might be it.” She said but didn’t believe it. That answer didn’t feel right. If they wanted to protect from radiation exposure, they’d wear hazmat suits. There were tactical suits, her company made some and sold them to the military.

Lena had a bigger realization. “They’re not to protect from radiation.”

“How do you figure?” Alex asked.

Lena stood, laid her fingers on the bowstring, “These vests don’t protect the arms. And radiation can still carry through the bloodstream. But it _does_ mask a heartbeat from prying eyes.”

“Why would that matter?” Alex said. “My sister could hear the heartbeats anyway.”

That’s a point.

But!

Lena stopped, drew the heartbeat detecting arrow from the quiver and looked at the guard. She laid her bow on the table next to her so she could pull her phone. When she looked at the screen, the only heartbeat the arrow could detect was her own.

“Someone’s got my playbook and they’re using it against me,” Lena realized.

Kara had so many ways to find the guards if she were so inclined. She could hear so much about them, not just their heartbeats. She could see them through the walls.

But Lena couldn’t. She relied on technology for her edge.

Someone was stacking a deck against her.

She returned the sensor arrow to the quiver, pocketed the phone, and picked up her bow.

She continued deeper into the house, wary for the next guard to surprise her.

None did.

It did not put her at ease.

On the farthest end of the house was a massive game room. A pool table dominated the center, with an air hockey table to the side, big couches in front of a positively gargantuan television, and a pile of mail in the middle of the biggest couch.

She squeezed the grip of her bow tighter. She should quit this and abandon the house. This was a trap, surely. It was practically labeled.

She pulled an explosive-tipped arrow from her quiver, and fired it into the corner of the window. It didn’t go off; it needed to be detonated remotely. The trigger was on the grip of the bow.

She loaded a regular arrow, just to have it ready.

She advanced on the couch.

There was no one around that she could detect. She heard nothing, she saw no movement. Despite the open bay windows on the end of the game room, there was no more sunlight in the sky and the room itself had gotten dark, save for the few mood lights.

She got to the couch, and sorted through the mail quickly.

On the bottom was a letter, from the maximum security prison Belle Reeve.

Lena’s heart stopped dead in her chest and her mouth dried up and her hands started to tremble immediately. She almost couldn’t read the letter for how bad her hands shook.

The letter was from Lex Luthor. Her brother.

So many questions filled her mind she couldn’t positively articulate any in a coherent thought. She couldn’t latch on to a single idea to work it out to a coherent conclusion.

Fear, terror, anger, frustration, resentment, betrayal, her thoughts were less declarations and they were more punctuations of explosive emotion.

She tried to reach inside the letter but she heard footsteps on the stairs behind her and she twisted. She shoved the letter into her vest pocket, and drew the bow back.

Both Vladimir and MacNamara walked down the stairs towards her. They were flanked by a half dozen goons each.

“It’s not often I do business with two Luthors in a day,” Vlad said. His English was impeccable and his suit was expensive and refined. “I’m almost confused by it all. But that’s alright, I’ll only have one to deal with tomorrow.”

Lena kept the pressure on the bow. “I don’t know what you’re talking about.” She still had her helm on, most of her face was hidden.

“It’s a good act, kid,” Vlad said. “But don’t insult my intelligence. I’ve got boils older than you are.”

She shuddered, despite herself. What a disgusting comparison.

“And in the face of that antiquity, maybe recognize that I’ve played this game long enough to know where things stand.”

“I didn’t call you stupid,” Lena said. “I said I don’t know what you’re talking about.”

“Your brother implied that you were intelligent,” Vlad kept his hands in his pockets. “Playing stupid doesn’t seem befitting of that.”

“If I were a Luthor, I wouldn’t admit to it, now would I? Certainly not to a room full of guns.”

“That is a fair point,” he said. “So how about my men buzz off for a minute and we talk Supers.”

“They don’t bother me. The implication that Lex Luthor is in business with the likes of you, does.”

“He failed to mention how highly you think of yourself.” Vlad shrugged. “Not that I’m surprised, exactly.”

“What does Lex want with you?”

“Lex knows an awful lot about what’s going on in this city, despite how deep underground he is.”

“Is that right,” She groaned. Her arms and shoulders started to burn with the effort of keeping the bow drawn. But the guards didn’t lower the guns, and she was afraid of what would happen if she relaxed. Would they interpret it as an act of aggression?

She was in no hurry to see just how bulletproof her armor was.

“Okay I’ll make it easy,” Vlad wandered to an end table with a tray of decanters and an ice bucket and heavy shot glasses, “You own being a Luthor, and I’ll play straight with you.”

“Even if that were admissible in court, I wouldn’t do it becauase I’m not. And role-playing doesn’t seem fun to me.”

“Kid,” he took a swig of his drink and his voice got hoarse, “You’re dressed up as a cheap knockoff of Batman. I’d say you’re more invested in the role-play game than the rest of us.”

“What does Lex want with you?”

“A world without Supers.” Vlad hoisted his drink and knocked back the rest. “Mac, you want some?”

“No.” MacNamara said. He hadn’t moved from his position near the bottom of the stairs. He stood, stiff and unmoving, and glared at Lena while she and Vlad talked.

“Suit yourself.” Vlad poured himself another and sloshed it around the glass. The ice cubes tinked against the edge and made a hollow, tinny noise. “Anyway. A world without Supers. Sounds like fun to me so I signed up.”

“Why? It doesn’t sound fun.”

“It’s an unfair advantage,” Vlad said. “So here’s my math, right? These Supers can just fuck with me however and whenever they like and they take great pleasure in doing that. And we can’t do shit. We scuttle in the dark and try to stay out of their gaze. I tell you what, I feel like Frodo of the Shire trying to evade Sauron’s gaze.”

Lena raised her eyebrows, and Vlad grinned, “I’m Russian, kid, I don’t fear big books. Used copies of War and Peace are cheap body armor to us.”

Lena rolled her eyes. Her arms were positively on fire now and her hands visibly shook trying to keep the bow taught.

“Look, can you ease off the bow?” Vlad asked. “Before your fingers cramp and I get killed by accident?”

It was a reasonable question and Lena tried not to seem overtly grateful as she carefully eased off the pressure and let the bow go slack.

Her arms were loose rubber. She doubted she could draw the bow again if she had to.

“So either the Supers fuck off, or I dig up something to level the playing field. See, in the old days, fear worked both ways, right? I scared the cops, the cops scared my people and together we did business. Fear equalizes us, don’t you agree?”

Lena said nothing.

“I got Kryptonite bullets. And I’ve heard rumors that Supergirl’s already caught a couple of them.” Vlad’s smile turned intensely predatory and Lena was sorely tempted to kill him outright. Kara’s rules be damned.

“So that’s what this is? You resent Supers so you’re prepared to put them down?”

“I am,” Vlad put his glass down. “I don’t care if they exist, but I care when they get holier than thou and stick their nose in my business. And I got a good business, when Supers aren’t fucking with it.”

“Find another job.”

“Well unless there’s an unfortunate accident, it’s not like there’s any vacant CEO positions.”

The threat was implicit and Lena did not flinch in the face of it.

“I’m just saying,” Lena shrugged. “Been threatened by better.”

“I’d be insulted, but it’s probably true.”

“Is there a point to our conversation?”

“There is. A great deal of _your_ money has been placed in our pockets to make very, _very_ certain that a certain Super bites a bullet.”

“A kryptonite, bullet.”

“You win _all_ the marbles, sweetheart.”

Lena shuffled, uncomfortable on her feet. “What’s in it for you?”

“I get my city back. We get to go back to the way things are.”

“I’m losing money every day we’re at this impasse,” MacNamara said.

“My heart bleeds for you,” Lena shrugged. “No, wait, I’m sorry, that’s just indigestion.”

“Don’t insult me, little girl.” MacNamara said. “I’ve outlived more corporations than any living Luthor’s owned.”

“Considering it’s just me at this point, and I’m twenty-five, that’s not hard.” She smiled. “But I hear the threat.”

He said nothing. She looked at Vlad. “So what’s the point? You here to coerce me? Kill me? Give me lots of valuable information you know I can’t act on?”

“Here to give you a message actually, and to see you safely back to your DEO friend out on my driveway.”

Lena’s heart seized with fear. Did they have Alex? She heard no scuffle, and Lena had no doubt that Alex would _not_ go quietly. Had they surprised her? It was possible. She was a brilliant agent but she was human.

“Who?”

“Don’t play dumb,” Vlad rubbed at his eyes. “It insults my intelligence. Tall brunette with a rifle almost as big as she is.”

Lena didn’t react, but it took all her training not to.

“Nice reaction,” Vlad said. “Short version. Don’t mess with coming events. We’ve got coffins enough to bury everyone who falls to this fight. Innocent, or not.” Vlad put his hands in his pockets and seemed puffed up with pride over that one.

“I’ll bear it in mind.”

“Oh, got a message from our benefactor. He says, ‘I’m disappointed, Ace. You played a great game badly.’”

Lena shuddered.

“Lena,” Alex said. “I sure hope you got a plan.”

“Brace,” Lena whispered.

“Got it.” Alex said.

Vlad stiffened. “Don’t do it. I will gladly escort you away from here, without violence. But you do this, I will kill you and lose no sleep over having done it.”

“My brother will resent you for that.”

“Given how much money he’s spent on failed hitmen, I doubt it. The only reason you’re alive now because he is cordially inviting you to back off.”

“I’ll take it up with him.”

“Lena, walk out of here nicely. This doesn’t have to go the way you want.”

“Something you should know about me, Vlad,” Lena shrugged. “I really hate following orders.”

She pushed the detonator, the window behind her shattered, and even as that happened, she yanked off a shot at Vlad. The arrow tore into his upper chest, just below his pectoral, and she twisted. She yanked the grappling arrow from the quiver, and fired it into the wall. She swung out into space as gunfire opened up behind her.

As she cleared the edge of the house, she saw a patio that ran along the side of the house, back towards the cliff. She swung for it, but as she arched towards it, the grappling hook abruptly let go.

She screamed, plummeted down, she reached out, caught the edge of the deck with both hands.

Her momentum carried her almost horizontal against the bottom of the patio. As she swung back, she scrambled up, hoisted herself bodily upright, grabbed the railing, and hopped over.

“Alex, there’s a sniper—“

There was a yell of pain above and to the left, and immediately after, Lena heard the gunshot from Alex’s rifle.

“No shit,” Alex said. “You run. I’ll cover.”

Lena sprinted along the patio over the edge of the cliff. She didn’t want to drop into the valley and try and escape that way. There were fast cars in the driveway and she could take one of those, connect with Alex down the road, and get away.

Above and around her, men called out as they were wounded by Alex’s fire.

Lena veered into the driveway, pulled an arrow back and hesitated. She scanned the area, saw no gunmen in the immediate vicinity, and then selected a car. All the cars were pointed towards the end of the driveway. She picked a silver Aston Martin for no other reason than it was straight ahead of her, and fired the arrow.

She punched the windows out, and leapt into the car. The arrow lodged in the door of the next car over, its momentum spent after destroying the windows. She yanked that arrow, stabbed it into the ignition, and twisted hard.

The car came to life, she shoved it into gear, and streaked away.

Gunfire peppered the rear of the car.

“Alex, let’s go!”

She spun the wheels out of the driveway, huddled over the steering wheel to make herself the smallest possible target. Down the road, she saw the big black SUV bounce back onto pavement, and accelerate away.

Lena tucked in behind and they raced away.

They were not pursued.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Alex and Lena recuperate in a diner and try and sort out some of the tension between them, next time on Lena's insurrection

**Author's Note:**

> I'm working on polishing and expanding the next chapter so it should be up in a few days. Not sure what else to say except thank you for reading, and any feedback is always welcome and appreciated!


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